- Bill facilitates public-private partnerships to test and demonstrate advanced reactors
- Versatile reactor-based fast neutron source vital for reactor and fuel testing
- DOE research and computing capabilities will be accessible to private innovators
The U.S. Senate on March 7 passed the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (S 97), a bill designed to speed advanced reactors to market. The vote came during the nuclear industry’s Innovation Week promoting advanced nuclear innovation and development.
This bill’s passage in the Senate is a welcome and timely reminder of the bipartisan support these innovative technologies enjoy in Congress. Its provisions, once enacted into law, will go a long way to ensure the United States remains at the forefront of civilian nuclear capability.
The bill is sponsored by Sens. Michael Crapo (R-Idaho), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), among others.
Among its provisions is to open the research capabilities of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories to private companies, including high-performance, computer-based modeling and simulation techniques. Such public-private partnerships would allow the testing and demonstration of privately funded reactor concepts, possibly to be built and operated at the national laboratories or other federal facilities.
The legislation authorizes development of a versatile reactor-based source of fast neutrons needed to test advanced reactors and related materials and fuels. With the only commercially available fast neutron testing facility currently located in Russia, a U.S.-based facility will help restore this important capability in America.
The bill also provides for the sharing of technical information and expertise between DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which could accelerate NRC licensing of advanced reactor designs. In addition, a DOE cost-share grant would help defray some fees that private applicants would have to pay the NRC for certain prelicensing activities.
S 97 is companion legislation to a bipartisan House bill (HR 431) sponsored by Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), whose 2017 version passed in the House in January 2017 as part of the Department of Energy Research and Innovation Act (HR 589).
“NEI hopes Congress will complete consideration of this measure expeditiously so that it can be signed into law by the president,” NEI Vice President of Governmental Affairs Beverly Marshall said.
Meanwhile, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved on March 8 the Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies Act (S 1457), sponsored by Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Booker. The bill seeks to direct the secretary of energy to “carry out demonstration projects relating to advanced nuclear reactor technologies to support domestic energy needs.” The bill will be forwarded to the full Senate for consideration.