As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, a lot happened in the nuclear energy industry last year. We protected the nuclear tax credits, the president issued a series of Executive Orders in support of nuclear, and so much more—but there’s still a lot of work to do. That’s why NEI continues to put forward suggestions and priorities to move the industry forward and keep growing our clean energy fleet domestically and abroad.
Earlier in January, NEI CEO and President Maria Korsnick testified in front of Congress to address meeting AI demand and U.S. nuclear leadership. In front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy she said,
Nuclear energy is essential to meeting America’s rapidly growing electricity demand while keeping power reliable and affordable and strengthening national security. As demand rises across the economy—driven by data centers, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and electrification—nuclear power provides always-available, clean electricity that stabilizes the grid and reduces exposure to price volatility for consumers.
In short, we need more nuclear energy, and fast, if we’re going to hit our energy needs while also decarbonizing our energy systems. This is what we need to prioritize in 2026 to make it happen:
- Timely implementation of modernized NRC processes and regulations. Congressional oversight is essential to ensure a risk-informed, performance-based, and predictable regulatory framework that maintains safety while enabling timely licensing decisions. Through efforts like the ADVANCE Act and the Executive Orders from last year, we’ve seen progress on this front and expect big changes at the regulator this year. Last year, our own Doug True laid out what NRC modernization could look like.
- Mitigation of early-mover financial risk to accelerate new reactor deployment. Targeted government-sponsored tools to protect consumers, taxpayers, and investors are needed to manage early-project cost and schedule risk, unlock private capital, and enable repeatable deployment at scale.
- Establishment of a secure domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. Timely disbursement of appropriated funding is critical to reducing reliance on untrustworthy suppliers.
- Establishment of a comprehensive, durable national strategy for used fuel management. Progress on recycling, interim storage, transportation, and disposal should be advanced together as part of an integrated, long-term framework.
- Cultivation of a robust workforce and supply chain. Continued government, industry, university, and labor coordination is needed to ensure the skilled workforce and manufacturing capacity required for new projects. Fortunately, now things like Nuclear Works exist to help folks from all over the workforce get good, high-paying jobs that move nuclear forward.
- Engagement to support U.S. competitiveness in global markets. Coordinated federal leadership, efficient export processes, and effective financing tools are essential to support U.S. companies.
Fortunately, nuclear energy is growing in public and private support and is pretty darn popular now, so the government should feel fully supported in moving forward with nuclear energy. These priorities will help us do so.
