The Senate Education Committee advanced a nuclear workforce development bill (SB 45) unanimously to Appropriations and sent a contested Auraria Board voting-rights bill (SB 34) to the Committee of the Whole on a 4-3 vote, while unanimously approving eight gubernatorial nominees to three higher education boards.
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Barbara Donachai (Physicians for Social Responsibility) argued the bill is 'a premature effort to train nuclear workers in an industry that does not yet exist in Colorado,' citing that no small modular reactors exist in the United States and that the only SMR project was terminated in November 2023. Senator Liston countered that 'not one person has died in the United States from a nuclear accident' and characterized nuclear energy as an inevitably growing sector; Senator Mullica argued the bill 'is education and this bill is making sure that we're supporting institutions here in Colorado.'
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“Committee. It's my honor and privilege to be here to present to you Senate Bill 45 along with my good colleague Senator Mullica, as I euphemistically call it, the Nuclear Workforce Development Bill. Clearly here in Colorado over the last year or two, there has been a lot of public support for ultimately someday having some form of nuclear energy here in Colorado, whether it's small modular reactors or molten salt reactors”
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Sign in to subscribeMiss Grisfield, please call the roll. Senators Bright. Excuse. Frizzell. Present. Judah. Excused. Michaelson. Genae. Present. Rich. Here. Kip. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. And thank you all for joining us today. We're going to start off with our confirmation hearings before we get to our bills, just to give everyone a heads up, we're going to be doing the confirmation hearings, then Senate Bill 45, then Senate Bill 34. First confirmation here is for the Adam State University Board of Trustees. President Tamberg's here, I believe. Want to come on up. And I think you have, what, two people in person and one remote. And when you're ready, you can start your introduction right next to the sign where see it? There you go. Right where the big red arrow is. There you go. Yeah, there we go. Chair, members of the committee, it's a real honor to be in front of you all. Again, some of you, we've done this a few times and so I really appreciate the opportunity to introduce three new board members that have been nominated by Governor Polis and strongly supported by me and the rest of the trustees. Jonathan Barba recently retired from…
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