Democrats and Republicans find a lot of things to disagree on, but there’s one thing they continue to agree on: The need for nuclear energy.
Want to learn more about the relationship between nuclear and the federal government? We asked NEI’s Vice President of Governmental Affairs, Michael Flannigan.
How does the federal government impact the development of nuclear energy in the United Sates?
It's a great question. The federal government impacts it from a variety of different programs in terms of just process, the blocking and tackling, up on Capitol Hill.
Congress would enact a law and then they would appropriate the funding, and then the Department of Energy would implement that. In addition to that, Congress might say to the Department of Energy, “I don't like the way you're implementing the program that I just told you to implement.” And so, they would call them back to Capitol Hill and have an oversight hearing.
So, you've got Congress authorizing and appropriating the program, and then you've got the federal government implementing that. And of course, from a regulatory standpoint, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission makes sure that the license application goes through, while at the same time focusing on safety.
Can you share the bipartisan support in Congress for new nuclear development?
Five, ten years ago—not a lot of bipartisan support for nuclear in Congress. And over the last 4 to 5 years, we've seen kind of a surge in bipartisan support. So, in the 118th Congress, Congress enacted what's called the Advance Act. And the Advance Act is going to modernize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We're going to say, continue to focus on safety. But what we really need you to do is become more efficient and more modern, just like we all have to do, right? It's not the strongest species that survives. It's the one that adapts the best. And we want the NRC to be adapting. In terms of the vote on the Advance Act, the vote got to the Senate 88 to 2, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, that would have been unheard of. So, we're really starting to see both Republicans and Democrats support nuclear.
Has nuclear received support from both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past? Do you see it continuing?
Yes. Under the Trump administration—so, Trump won in 2016, we saw the birth of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. That was just the enactment, the authorization for it. And since then, we've seen that program grow. And under the Biden administration, we saw that production tax credit for the existing fleet and the investment tax credit enacted into law for future builds. So, good support from a Republican administration and a good support from a Democratic administration. I've been around this town for a while, and I can tell you it's rare to have that.
More and more people are talking about the bipartisan support we have within administrations and up on Capitol Hill. And the great news is we're starting to see that, and hopefully we'll continue to see that in the [current] Congress until 2025.
What policy support is needed to encourage development and deployment of new nuclear?
Well, that's a question that's been going around Capitol Hill for the last couple of years. So, we need to help developers and utilities reduce the financial risks that they have and being what's called the first- of-a-kind mover. So, many of their boards and investors are saying we want to see nuclear built, but we don't want to see you, Utility X, be the first mover, because the cost of that is much higher than if you're building unit 3 or 4 or 5 or 6. So, we want the federal government, and we'll be working with the Trump administration and up on Capitol Hill, to say “We, the federal government, are going to step forward and help reduce that financial risk for those that go from the first of a kind, maybe down to the fifth of a kind.”
And that could be what's called federal backstop insurance. So, we say, okay, if you're running over, the federal government will step in and provide a little bit of financial support to get you over that hump. So, the first of a kind is built. So, what we're going to be doing is working with stakeholders, whether it's up on Capitol Hill and the incoming Trump administration or other like-minded associations in Washington, DC to enact a federal policy that will help reduce that, risk for the developers and for the utilities.
