. >> thank you, final witnesses the honorable jeffrey s merrifield chairman u.s. nic, advance advance reactor task force, welcome. >> chairman, thank you very much, it's indeed a pleasure to be here for the committee in which i used to work as a council and one in which i testify in many occasions as an nrc commissioner. today i'm. today i'm appearing my role as chair of the u.s. nuclear counsel and advance reactor task force. my full-time occupation is attorney with pillsbury law firm. in addition to my full testimony i would ask that letters from seven advance reactor developers supporting this legislator be included in the record. my testimony will focus on how the undersea conducts its business as well as its use regarding advance reactor portion of the bill. we applied the overhead and caps within 2795 as well as the element supporting the development and deployment of advance reactor technology. on february 22 of this year, they issued a framework for advance reactor white paper which outline many of the advance reactor can provisions in the bill. while we will

u.s. forces. here's nic robertson with more. and a warning, his report contains disturbing images. [ groaning ] >> reporter: syria's cease-fire is in tatters. the latest, an airstrike on an opposition hospital in aleppo. this one support the by doctors without borders and the red cross. dozens killed, including children and at least three doctors. one of them, the last pediatrician. so severe the attack, the red cross issued a statement, saying the destruction of the hospital are putting millions at grave risk. [ yelling ] the bodies, the grief, piling pressure on forging peace talks in geneva. >> in the last 48 hours, we have had an average of one syrian killed every 25 minutes. one syrian wounded every 13 minutes. >> reporter: three weeks of talks, 1,000 miles from the front lines, little progress for two sides using the cease-fire to talk about political transition. but accusations, not compromises, traded. >> translator: the threats that emanated from the opposition who were here in geneva before they sulked and got upset an

. >> nic, the critics of donald trump in the u.s.ut the foreign policy. saying he is learning this as he goes along. lindsey graham says i'm not sure who is advising trump on foreign policy, but i understand why he is not revealing their names. madeleine albright with scathing analysis of trump. no understanding of complex international issues. no serious proposals. what is the international reaction of donald trump as he gets closer to the nomination and potential to have the big job in the white house? from the international perspective, nic, is he a serious student of foreign policy? >> reporter: no one is saying that. the reaction is anything but. a few months ago, the british prime minister david cameron calling trump's comments about banning muslims travels into the united states. he said that was divisive and wrong and stupid. david cameron had the chance to roll that statement back. he said he would not do that. there was little detail yesterday that could give them substance to hold on to. plenty for them to worry about. her

u.s. and saudi arabia. we will go live to riyadh right now and bring in cnn's nic robertson.sit is coming at a precarious time. >> reporter: it is. president obama is coming here and meeting with the gcc. gulf cooperation council. bahrain, qatar, kuwait and ahman. there is a huge feeling of animosity in saudi arabia because the iranian nuclear deal. that is cause for concern. the problems between two the countries are deeper. particularly, president obama, as far as the saudis are concerned, is not seen as a president who is really looking after their regional interests. this issue of the 9/11 papers, the 28 pages is coming at a very, very difficult time. president obama while he is here, wants to get saudi support and gulf support for security stability in the region and bring an end to the war in syria and bring an end to the fighting in yemen. the saudis for their part think the united states has left them out in the cold. they are ramping up defense and security here massively. so you have real almost divergent interests. this explains to some degree the saudis reacting t

u.s. weapons. obama wants regional stability. the time if riyadh is not about divorce but easing the estrangement. >> nic robertson joining now live the trip repair that relationship, which as you correctly point out, has been strained? >> reporter: wolf, i think the best to hope to do is kind of sort of give the saudis and the gulf states something of what they want which is a missile defense shield against ballistics missiles of iran, try to give the united states something it wants, a stronger partner on the syria issue, the peace talking there breaking down and a stronger partner tackling and fighting isis in the future but what, you know, this issue of stability in the region, trying to get that at a time when the saudis feel they're being let down is tough. they feel they're alone and following their agenda. we have seen what they've done in lebanon. cutting funding there. the crown prince in jordan a day later, the government shuts down the muslim brotherhood offices. talks about executing more than 20 prisoners. and in the past couple of days, closed down its diplomatic mission in teheran. saudi arabia is exerting a very s

nic robertson, cnn, london. >> really feel for those family members. >>> up to 16 members of the u.s.o be disciplined over their role in an airstrike in kunduz, afghanistan last year. at least 42 people were killed. according to two officials, the military personnel are not expected to face criminal charge, but a top commander will likely be fired. the u.s. has apologized for the airstrikes, saying it was a terrible mistakes. >>> now to a bizarre incident in the city of the baltimore, and a warning, some of what you're about to see is graphic. police shot and wounded a man dressed in an animal suit avenue walked into a local tv station with what appeared to be explosive devices. we're told he demanded the station report on a government conspiracy before being confronted by law enforcement. >> those devices were actually chocolate candy bars wrapped in aluminum foil with wiring connecting each of them. the wire was also running down the sleeve of his jacket into his hand. basically emulating some type of detonation type of device. so it does not appear that this was a device capable of

u.s. and saudis is badly frayed. king salman unhappy about the iran nuclear deal and a bill in congress that would allow 9/11 victims to sue saudi arabia for damages. nicoining us live from saudi arabia. characterize for me how frayed this relationship is. >> reporter: it's been getting worse during president obama's presidency. really, one of the turning points began even before then when he gave a speech in chicago, calling saudi arabia a so-called ally. when he came to office, the saudis were very well disposed to him. then you have the arab spring. the saudis feel they let down their allies in the region. then the nuclear deal with iran. they don't trust iran. they see it as being a sponsor of terrorism and trouble in the region. what the saudis and their gulf allies here want is a ballistic missile shield to defend against any aggression in the region by iran. both sides wanting something. but add on top of that those 28 pages, the 9/11 commission report, the bill before congress, add in that, no surprise perhaps the saudis' response has been visceral. in that kind of tense relationship when president obama meets with king salman this afternoon, i

u.s. maintained its technology leadership, building new passive generation iii reactors in georgia and south carolina, as well as small modular light water nuclear reactors headed toward deployment. nic has seen significant growth and support for generation iv advanced reactors, that will provide expanded options for economical, carbon-free electricity and industrial heat generation. if the united states is to be successful in maintaining its lead in developing and deploying reactors in the 2020's, 2030's, congress must consider significant policy changes. we believe the language in section 6 of hr 4979 will allow the agency to create a modern, risk-informed, technology-neutral framework, which will enable the development of appropriate advanced regulations, without passing costs on to the developers or the utilities. while section 686 calls for nrc to evaluate options to allow applicants to review fees processes, we believe the language should be strengthened, to require the nrc to establish specific stages in the advanced nuclear process, including a pre-licensing vendor pre-line review, recommended by the nic white paper. such a process would allow advanced reactor developers and

u.s. victims of 9/11 the ability to sue saudi arabia for its alleged ties to the hijackers. cnn international editor, nicertson is in riyadh this morning with more. hi, nick. >> hi, carol. the biggest indication of where those tensions lie came when president obama arrived at the international airport here in riyadh. there was no very senior high level delegation to meet in the most senior official, the governor, an important person, but not somebody of the central government, not the king, not the interior minister, not the defense minister, all these people very senior royals here in saudi arabia, none of those at the airport. that is really an early indication setting the tone for president obama for his meetings here. he is met with the king, obviously, president obama came to get support from the king, from his gulf cooperation council allies to target isis, how can they be better effective at doing that how can they be involved. can they help in iraq. all these sorts of issues are on the table. for their part, the king, the saudis, they want a ballistic defense, that they see as violence in the reg

u.s. navy sailor friends were watching along as well and said the same. he hit on certain buzz words but lacking in specifics. nic robertson -- >> go ahead. >> not only did i think of my friends in estonia but my friends in the national army or the navy war colleges right now trying to discern what the next potential president might ask them to do. and truthfully, brooke, i put down my pen after his list of five because it was just hard to keep up. >> nic, critics will say, as we have been hearing, still no details. one thing he did say to certainly get attention of supporters and several times, i want to play the soundbyte. radical islam. roll it. >> we need a long-term plan to halt the spread and reach of radical islam. containing the spread of radical islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the united states. and indeed the world. events may require the use of military force. but it's also a philosophical struggle. in this we're going to be working very closely with our allies in the muslim world. all of which are at risk from radical islamic violence, attacks and everything else. >> nic, radical islam, w

u.s. maintained its technology leadership building new passive generation iii reactors in georgia and south carolina, as well as small modular light water nuclear reactors headed toward deployment. nic has seen significant growth and support for generation iv reactors that will provide expanded options for economical, carbon-free electricity. if the united states is to be successful in maintaining its lead in developing and deploying reactors in the 2020s, 2030s, congress must consider significant policy changes. we believe the language in section 6 of hr 4979 will allow the agency to create a modern, risk-informed, technology neutral framework enable development of advance the regulations without passing costs on to the developers or the utilities. section 6a6 calls for nrc to evaluate options to allow applicants to review fees processes we believe the language should be strengthened to require the nrc to establish specific stages in the advanced nuclear process including prelicensing vendor preliline r recommended by the nic white paper. such a process would allow advanced reactor developers and investors to have a clearer picture of where they stand in the nrc process, meeting nr