On July 9, President Biden signed sweeping pro-nuclear legislation that even longtime skeptics acknowledged should lift the industry’s fortunes.
Even as they assess what the new law means for the industry, nuclear advocates are looking to build on the momentum with further updates to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process, a more robust federal backstop for reactor developers and additional state support for new nuclear.
Nuclear advocates hailed the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy, or ADVANCE, Act as the most substantial piece of federal nuclear legislation at least since the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act of 2019, which imposed new transparency requirements on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and laid the groundwork for the new Part 53 licensing pathway for advanced reactors.
The NRC is developing Part 53 as a more flexible framework suitable for a range of advanced reactor technologies, in contrast with a Part 52 pathway that has since the late 1980s been favored by conventional reactor developers.
The ADVANCE Act passed by a margin of 393-13 in the House of Representatives and 88-2 in the Senate, underscoring the “extraordinary … vitality of nuclear and the degree to which folks in Congress have, in bipartisan fashion, embraced it,” said Jeff Merrifield, a former NRC commissioner and current chair of the board of directors of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, an industry advocacy group.
Among other provisions, the landmark law directs the NRC to update its mission statement to reflect that it should not “unnecessarily limit” civilian use of nuclear technology, reduces certain NRC licensing fees, sets the stage for more efficient microreactor licensing, accelerates regulatory review of reactor applications for existing nuclear sites, establishes five prizes for first-to-market advanced reactors and codifies a separate regulatory framework for nuclear fusion technology.
Now, the U.S. nuclear industry is turning its attention to the ADVANCE Act’s implementation and anticipated real-world impacts. It’s also taking stock of unfinished policymaking business as a high-stakes election looms.
What does the ADVANCE Act mean for the industry?
The passage of the ADVANCE Act has drawn near-uniform praise from nuclear technology developers, supply chain companies, utilities, trade groups and other industry stakeholders.
Advanced reactor companies with business before the NRC are among the clearest beneficiaries. In a June memo, Oklo — a Sam Altman-backed advanced reactor and nuclear fuel recycling company that aims to submit an NRC license application next year and bring its first commercial power plant online in 2027 — anticipated benefits from eight ADVANCE Act provisions:
- NRC fee caps and other fee changes for advanced reactor and pre-licensing applicants that Oklo said could reduce its hourly licensing costs by 50% or more.
- Faster NRC licensing timelines for subsequent combined operating license, or COL, applications that follow an initial “reference” application, with a 25-month deadline for the NRC to issue a final decision.
- A requirement that the NRC develop and implement new, faster microreactor licensing strategies within 36 months. Oklo said last month that its initial licensing timeline could be 50% to 85% shorter than typical initial reactor licenses and future reforms could cut subsequent license application timelines to as little as six months.
- Funding for site permit reviews and pre-licensing activities at Department of Defense facilities, creating additional military contracting opportunities for small reactor developers.
- Five advanced reactor prizes that will offset winners’ regulatory fees, including one prize for the first advanced reactor licensed under NRC’s Part 52 process — the basis for COL applications — and another for the first reactor to run on spent reactor fuel or depleted uranium.
- A requirement that the NRC by next fall develop “streamlined processes” for siting nuclear reactors on brownfield sites, including sites of retired or retiring coal power plants.
- A new NRC program to accelerate the development of a domestic supply chain for advanced reactor fuel and its prerequisites.
- A new nuclear workforce training program that could expand labor availability across the industry.
The ADVANCE Act’s provision to streamline and “modernize” the NRC’s operations are likely to have the greatest impact for nuclear technology companies like Oklo, cofounder and CEO Jake DeWitte told Utility Dive.
“Having that clarity and purpose is worth a lot because it helps dictate what their job is,” he said.
By directing the NRC to update its mission statement by next year to reflect that it should license and regulate nuclear technology and material “in a manner that is efficient and does not unnecessarily limit” their civilian use or societal benefit, the ADVANCE Act “changes the tone of what’s going on at the agency,” Merrifield said.
Without a statutory requirement to do so, the NRC didn’t always operate efficiently, said Merrifield, who sat on the commission from 1998 to 2007. The ADVANCE Act directive was a clear expression of lawmakers’ displeasure with that state of affairs, he said.
“Congress has now enshrined that the agency has to do things in a different way,” he said.
Other promising ADVANCE Act provisions include the 25-month deadline for subsequent COL applications, which could significantly reduce preconstruction costs for reactor developers, Merrifield said. In 2007, an NRC task force led by Merrifield recommended streamlining the environmental review process for subsequent COL applications, and “now, two decades later, Congress has embraced that,” he said.
The ADVANCE Act also loosened longstanding restrictions on foreign ownership of U.S. nuclear reactors, Merrifield said. The change comes with important caveats, notably that foreign owners be from India or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries and submit to thorough applicant reviews.
“[This] unleashes additional opportunities for companies that want to invest in current or future nuclear power plants [while providing] plenty of tools to ensure bad people can’t buy our nuclear reactors,” he said.
What would the industry like to see next?
Broad as it was, the final version of the ADVANCE Act wasn’t all-encompassing. Its fee reductions and reactor prizes favor first-of-a-kind advanced reactor technologies rather than traditional large light-water reactor designs that developers like The Nuclear Company hope to deploy at scale in the next decade, and it leaves undisturbed the strict environmental standards underpinning the NRC-led regulatory regime.
Additionally, the ADVANCE Act does not address “significant uncertainties … regarding the NRC's capacity to effectively, efficiently, and predictably license the diverse designs and substantial volume of anticipated new reactor applications,” the Nuclear Innovation Alliance said in a July paper.
Congress should closely monitor the NRC as it implements the ADVANCE Act’s regulatory reforms and continues the rulemaking process for the new “technology-inclusive, risk-informed” Part 53 licensing pathway, which could enable future advanced reactor deployments, NIA recommended.
Congress could further reduce regulatory red tape at the NRC by eliminating an Atomic Energy Act requirement for mandatory hearings during the reactor licensing process, NIA Research Director Patrick White told Utility Dive.
That seemingly trivial change could eliminate an “archaic requirement that can add months to the [licensing] schedule” for new reactors, he said.
Congressional action wouldn’t be needed for the Secretary of Energy to invoke Section 638 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, said Juliann Edwards, chief development officer at The Nuclear Company. The never-used provision authorizes standby support contracts between DOE and sponsors of new nuclear power facilities to address risks that may arise before commissioning, providing a federal backstop that increases the likelihood of new reactor projects coming to fruition.
In a rulemaking notice, DOE anticipated “implementation issues” from nuclear facility sponsors entering into standby support contracts before beginning construction. It proposed a two-step process where sponsors that submitted combined license applications to the NRC would enter into “binding agreements” with DOE that would commit DOE to standby support once the license application was approved and construction commenced. But that theory has never been tested.
“The Energy Policy Act has only so far been used for administrative cost overruns [and] should be expanded,” Edwards said.
At the state level, pro-nuclear policy, perhaps modeled on the Virginia law that allows Dominion Energy to seek rate adjustment for a potential first-of-its-kind small modular reactor deployment, would also help level the playing field for new large light-water reactors, Edwards said.
Federal agencies have already committed billions to bring new and existing nuclear technologies to market through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration program, the DOE Loan Programs Office and Department of Defense procurements.
The nuclear industry needs to double down on efforts to build legislative support for pro-nuclear policy, Edwards said. The Nuclear Company embarked on a multistate roadshow this summer to draw attention to the industry’s needs.
“Nine [legislators] out of ten are supportive of nuclear,” Edwards said. “They just need to be educated on what can occur from a legislative support standpoint.”
The industry insiders who spoke to Utility Dive agree that pro-nuclear policy should be designed for a longer-term future where it’s no longer necessary — while enabling first-of-a-kind deployments and more liquid, risk-tolerant capital markets in the shorter term.
“The question is, how do you support deployment of nuclear to the point where it’s a fully commercially viable technology on its own,” White said.
Correction: A previous version of this story had the wrong date for when President Biden signed the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act. It was July 9.
