Senate Passes Legislation to Accelerate Development of Nuclear Energy Power Plants

A bipartisan bill that will advance the development of nuclear energy power plants in the nation was passed by the United States Senate on Tuesday.

In an 88-2 vote, the Senate voted to pass the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, which is part of the Fire Grants and Safety Act (S.8.70), according to a press release from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). The ADVANCE Act will now move forward to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed.

“Today, we sent the ADVANCE Act to the president’s desk because Congress worked together to recognize the importance of nuclear energy to America’s future and got the job done,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said in the press release.

Under the bill, the current process for exporting “American technology to international markets” would be improved, the “regulatory costs for companies seeking to license advanced nuclear reactor technologies” would be reduced, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chair would be given additional “tools” to “hire and retain” more qualified staff members who will “successfully and safely review and process applications for advanced nuclear reactor licenses,” among many others, according to the press release.

The bill would also task the NRC with evaluating “manufacturing techniques” that would help to “build nuclear reactors better, faster, cheaper and smarter.”

American Nuclear Energy Leadership would also be facilitated under the bill, by “empowering” the NRC to “read in international forums to develop regulations for advanced nuclear reactors.”

Nuclear energy does not produce emissions and is described by the Department of Energy (DOE) as a “zero-emission clean energy source.”

“It generates power through fission, which is the process of splitting uranium atoms to produce energy,” the DOE wrote on its website. “The heat release by fission is used to create steam that spins a turbine to generate electricity without the harmful byproducts emitted by fossil fuels.”

Capito added that the bill would “encourage more innovation and investment in nuclear technologies right here on our shores.”