April 26, 2023

Manchin Questions Department of Energy Leadership on Rebuilding Ukraine's Energy Grid

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Cybersecurity Subcommittee, questioned Department of Energy (DOE) leadership on supporting efforts to rebuild Ukraine’s energy grid. The witnesses were Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy, and Jill M. Hruby, Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

On supporting efforts to rebuild Ukraine’s energy grid:

“I recently went to Ukraine and saw firsthand the impact of the war on their energy infrastructure. Russia is targeting it with missiles and drones on a daily basis, and the energy grid outages not only further compromise their Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, but also compromise the three other electric producing nuclear power plants in Ukraine. They all require external power to operate their reactor cooling systems, and they are very much concerned about that essential nuclear safety and the security functions that go with it. I understand that DOE and NNSA have supported rebuilding Ukraine's grid and integrating it with Europe’s while also helping monitor and reduce nuclear risks,” Senator Manchin said in part. “How do you describe DOE’s and NNSA’s involvement in this and support for Ukraine?”

A timeline of Senator Manchin's work to support Ukraine against Putin's invasion is available here.

A video of Senator Manchin’s questioning of the witnesses can be found here.