The Senate sent one of the most significant pro-nuclear bills in recent history to President Joe Biden's desk this week, but the bill alone is unlikely to spur a nuclear revival in the United States.
The ADVANCE Act passed the Senate on Tuesday. 88-2 Passed by a bipartisan majority, nuclear advocates hailed the bill as a major step toward the U.S.'s energy future. While the bill is a step toward freeing up a nuclear industry that has long been in a bind, nuclear energy experts say it doesn't address some of the obstacles the industry faces.
The bill aims to lower nuclear power licensing costs, create new opportunities to eventually convert old industrial sites into facilities to host nuclear reactors, and give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) more staff and resources to carry out its mission. according to The bill, filed with the office of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, the bill's lead author, is a welcome development for an industry that has struggled for decades to expand despite growing momentum, especially among the environmental left, to decarbonize the U.S. power system and economy as a whole. (Related: Blue-state Democrats thwart plan to extend life of zero-emission power plant)
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“This bipartisan legislative package will ensure America maintains its leadership on the global stage and achieves our climate and national goals. energy “Our security objectives are to: Said “The passage of the ADVANCE Act will strengthen America's international competitiveness at this critical juncture and accelerate the domestic deployment of innovative, advanced technologies. Nuclear “Technological innovation and modernization of the oversight and licensing regime for operating nuclear reactors.”
But the bill is not a complete victory for those who want to see the technology covered more quickly, as it does not directly address issues such as the NRC's general risk aversion and the lack of strong financial protections against cost overruns.
” Nuclear While the commission has made recent progress toward efficiency while focusing on safety, there is still much work to be done,” Korsnick added. “This bill will support the NRC's efforts to further modernize as it prepares to review an increasing number of license renewal, power upgrades, and next-generation nuclear applications. Nuclear “Deployment”
John Starkey, director of public policy at the American Nuclear Society, told DCNF that while the bill is a “step in the right direction,” it probably won't be enough to usher in a nuclear renaissance on its own.
“ANS applauds the passage of the long-awaited ADVANCE Act, which provides commonsense guidance to accelerate the deployment of advanced reactors needed to meet global clean energy goals,” Starkey told DCNF. “While this bill alone will not change anything, the increased staffing and streamlined approach the NRC can take when regulating advanced reactors makes it a necessary step in the right direction.”
While the NRC would benefit greatly from the new bill, some energy experts, including Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Energy Research Institute, believe the NRC's approach to regulating the nuclear industry has been too conservative and risk-averse. As Kish previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation, he believes the NRC's years of risk aversion have created a “regulatory quagmire” that has significantly raised costs and discouraged nuclear power generation.
As of August 2023, the United States has 54 nuclear power plants and 93 commercial reactors in operation, totaling approximately 19% American power, according to According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average lifespan of a nuclear reactor is about 42 years, but licensing regulations limit its lifespan to an upper limit ranging from 40 to 80 years. according to To the EIA.
Nuclear generating capacity grew rapidly between 1967 and 1997 but has remained roughly stable since then. according to While only a handful of new reactors have come online in the past two decades, nuclear power is generally a more reliable, low-carbon source of electricity than solar or wind, according to the EIA, an important consideration in evaluating the Biden administration's policies. the goal Decarbonize the U.S. electricity sector by 2035 and the entire economy by 2050.
Power system monitors have consistently warned that the nation’s power grid may not be able to withstand a massive increase in electricity demand as reliable fossil fuel-fired generation is simultaneously phased out and replaced with intermittent solar and wind power. Nuclear power may therefore hold the key to achieving the decarbonized future that Biden and his appointees are pursuing with aggressive regulations and policies. Spending. (Related article: Carbon dioxide reduction group files lawsuit seeking to shut down zero-emission nuclear power plant)
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So the Biden administration clearly recognizes the potential of nuclear power and is making major efforts to advance it.
The Biden administration Pledge At last year's UN climate change summit, a commitment was made to triple America's nuclear generating capacity by 2050, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pledged “billions of dollars” to spur a nuclear revival in the US. Said At a nuclear energy conference in June, Granholm's Department of Energy (DOE) Announced Provide $900 million in funding to accelerate the deployment of the next generation of small modular reactors.
Two of the recently commissioned reactors are Unit 3 and Unit 4 The Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia has finally started up its nuclear reactors after years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns, highlighting the challenges posed by the complexities of nuclear engineering and construction.
Georgia Public Utilities Commissioner Tim Echols also praised the bill but raised different issues than other energy experts who have focused on the NRC's role. As a commissioner of the state's utility regulator, Echols helped complete the Vogtle project.
“What I'm most encouraged about ADVANCE is the bipartisan support for nuclear power. For a long time, only Republican-governed states were interested in new nuclear power, but that era appears to be coming to an end,” Echols told DCNF. “ADVANCE doesn't have the federal financial backing I was looking for, which would prevent it from going bankrupt and going over budget, but it's still very positive. Speeding up licensing will allow us to deploy the technology sooner, provided states are brave enough to build new nuclear plants.”
The backstop, which Echols describes as a kind of federal bankruptcy protection, would incentivize policymakers and developers to move forward with new projects because “it's still very risky to build new nuclear plants,” and public utility commissions across the country may be hesitant to do so without some protection against what Georgia experienced.
“Clearly, Advance and the White House's recent efforts in support of nuclear energy represent a push to accelerate new nuclear deployment in the United States the likes of which I haven't seen since I was a child,” Echols told DCNF.
The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the NRC declined to comment because the bill has not yet been signed into law.
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