NUCLEAR ENERGY 101
A SOLUTION AND OPPORTUNITY FOR SUSTAINED AMERICAN GROWTH AND DOMINANCE
Nuclear energy is absolutely necessary to fuel growing industries that need energy to flourish like crypto, AI, data, manufacturing, electric vehicles, and so much more.
Energy grids across the country are more vulnerable than ever to strains on capacity with demand at an all-time high, cybersecurity attacks from both domestic and foreign actors, unreliable renewable energy mandates, and burdensome regulations.
Americans have the opportunity to say goodbye to outages, brownouts, and blackouts. We have the opportunity to lead the world in vital economic sectors for generations by ensuring safe, clean, and reliable energy.
However, the current regulatory state and inaction in Congress have made the licensing, permitting, and building of advanced reactors slow and expensive.
Challenges
Since the creation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 1975, only the Vogtle 3 and 4 reactors in Georgia have received critical sign-off on new reactor design and subsequently been built. This is a remarkably poor performance by an agency tasked with leading the nation’s nuclear regulatory affairs.
For over 75 years, nuclear energy has proven among the safest energy technologies ever developed. Given that the NRC’s existing regulations significantly constrain additional development or innovation, current regulations could require advanced reactors to limit radiation levels to well below natural background levels. Because of these outdated regulations, it can take over a decade and a billion dollars to apply for a license with no guarantees that the license will be approved.
Current NRC regulations, designed for large light water reactors (LWRs) developed over 50 years ago, regulate every nut, bolt, weld, pump, pipe, and concrete structure in a nuclear power plant. Many of these rules are incompatible with new, advanced, smaller reactors that have few moving parts, use radically different coolants, can operate at atmospheric pressure, and do not utilize large steel or concrete structures.
We must not forget the misguided and outdated stigma assigned to nuclear energy many years ago as unsafe or unclean for the population. While nuclear energy is grounded in ubiquity, the nuanced understandings of implementation and oversight are nowhere near commonplace—neither among American citizens nor federal and state lawmakers.
An “all-of-the-above” energy policy is frequently heralded as a shared goal by public officials, but it simply has not been found in practice.
The bottom line is that developers of advanced nuclear energy do not have a clear roadmap for how to license their reactors or how regulators at the NRC will evaluate their license applications. Congress has directed the first-moving developers to commercialize advanced reactors by 2028. Meanwhile, lawmakers and citizens require an extensive education through public affairs communications just to grasp the entire concept and move away from draconian thinking and public policy.
Opportunity
Advanced nuclear and small modular reactors are fundamentally different from previous technologies like LWRs and should not be treated as such. We need faster approval timelines, reduced regulatory burdens on developers, and a national effort to unleash advanced nuclear deployment to power the technological and power needs of the nation.
Beginning in 2025, we can expect to have the greatest opportunity in generations to achieve vital milestones with an optimistic federal administration and ravenous innovation at the state level.
We need members of Congress and Agency officials to take heed of the growing demand for advanced nuclear power as a safe, clean, and cheap alternative that can provide abundant baseload power for America’s 21st century demands.