Signed into law in July 2024, the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advance Nuclear for Clean Energy Act (the ADVANCE Act) had bipartisan support among US legislators. The Act is designed to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by smoothing the path for advanced nuclear reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs) by accelerating licensing and creating new incentives for such technologies. In a commentary on the Act, law firm Sidley Austin said it “shows a sincere appetite among US policymakers to innovate regulation in an industry viewed as critical but somewhat stagnant of late.”
The ADVANCE Act coincided with an announcement in July 2024 of $900m in Federal Department of Energy (DOE) funding for Generation III+ reactors, specifically the SMR Pathway to Deployment.
Bids for the funding stream were due to be submitted by 17 January. Soon afterwards, DOE’s funding streams for energy technologies came under threat.
On 20 January President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on Unleashing American Energy that redirected US energy policy and set out an “Immediate Review of All Agency Actions that Potentially Burden the Development of Domestic Energy Resources. Following this Executive Order, on 27 January a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) required “Federal agencies to identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements,” and to suspend distribution of funding while the review was under way.
The funding pause was set to go into effect on 28 January, but OMB rescinded the memo on 29 January.
Meanwhile, on 3 February a Notice of Temporary Restraining Order was posted on the funding opportunities page of DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration (OCED), which lists the SMR funding opportunity with others. The restraining order refers to a challenge to an “alleged ‘pause’ of certain Federal financial assistance”. The restraining order says that Federal agencies must not “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations” on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders. The case cited is New York et al. v. Trump, but the prohibition “applies to all awards or obligations – not just those involving the Plaintiff States in the above-referenced case – and also applies to future assistance (not just current or existing awards or obligations).” The restraining order says: “Agencies may exercise their own authority to pause awards or obligations, provided agencies do so purely based on their own discretion – not as a result of the OMB Memo or the President’s Executive Orders – and provided the pause complies with all notice and procedural requirements in the award, agreement, or other instrument relating to such a pause.”
In practice, a review of the SMR funding programme would potentially delay but is unlikely to halt it. The review in President Trump’s Executive Order seeks “the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources to identify those agency actions that impose an undue burden” with “particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources”. The SMR programme is more likely to have continued support than other OCED funding programmes, such as long duration storage and direct air capture.
The $900m in federal funds available is intended to “create a credible and sustainable pathway to fleet-level deployment of Gen III+ SMRs” to provide electricity or process heat. The programme offers the prospect of modularity, factory construction and scalability. It says Gen III+ SMRs “may be able to revitalize and leverage the service and supply chain infrastructure supporting the existing fleet of light water reactor designs, thus providing a near-term path for new nuclear deployments.” To deliver that a demonstration project is “critical” and the programme will give priority to projects with the highest probability of a successful deployment, the greatest potential to develop an order book as well as adding to the resilience of the domestic nuclear industry.
The project funding will be available in two tiers:
- Tier 1 will provide up to $800m for one or two ‘first mover’ teams of utility, reactor vendor, constructor and off-takers.
- Tier 2 will provide up to $100m for ‘fast followers’ to address gaps in areas such as design, licensing, supplier development, and site preparation.
The ADVANCE Act
While companies bid for the SMR Pathway to Deployment funding, the ADVANCE Act attempts to address the governance and licensing of new reactor development and remove barriers to deployment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is at the sharp end of delivering the reforms, particularly in the areas of licensing of new reactors and fuels, and it has set up an online ‘Implementation Status Dashboard”.
The Act affects a wide range of NRC activities. It supports the recruitment and retention of the NRC workforce, adds flexibility to the NRC’s budgeting process, enhancing the regulatory framework for advanced reactors and fusion technology, and requiring initiatives to support the NRC’s efficient, timely, and predictable reviews of license applications.
It covers:
- American Nuclear Leadership: This empowers the NRC to expand efforts to collaborate with international stakeholders on advanced nuclear reactor regulation, development, and export activities, and directs DOE) to improve its process for approving the export of American nuclear technologies to international
markets. - Developing and deploying new nuclear technologies: Which aims to reduce licensing costs for new technologies and calls on NRC to create a new licensing path for micro nuclear technologies, at brownfield and fossil fuel sites, with a fast-track for existing nuclear sites.
- Preserving existing nuclear energy generation: It reduces restrictions on international investment and extending nuclear licenses to foreign corporations
- Nuclear fuel cycle, supply chain, infrastructure and workforce: This directs the NRC to evaluate advanced manufacturing techniques and to enhance its ability to qualify and license accident-tolerant fuels and advanced nuclear fuels.
- Improving Commission efficiency: Which gives the NRC more flexibility on staffing issues and requires it to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act environmental review process.
The NRC said it will address the Act’s requirements by:
- Implementing initiatives for efficient, timely, and predictable license application reviews
- Establishing an expedited procedure for reviewing new reactor licence applications
- Implementing changes to how the agency recovers fees from licensees
- Assessing the licensing review process for new nuclear facilities at former fossil-fuel power plant sites and brownfield sites
- Developing strategies and guidance for microreactors
- Removing certain limitations on foreign ownership of some types of licensed facilities
- Continuing to support international coordination on nuclear technologies and licensing activities implementing new requirements relating to nuclear fuel.
The NRC will also develop a regulatory framework for fusion technology, which is in contrast to fusion technology development in the UK. In the UK, the government has acted where possible to move regulation of fusion away from nuclear-specific regulation and towards the regulatory framework for other industries, arguing that fusion does not have the same scale of radiological risk as fusion.
As required by the Act, the NRC has also updated its mission statement. It now says: “The NRC protects public health and safety and advances the nation’s common defense and security by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation for the benefit of society and the environment.” The old mission statement had said: “The NRC licenses and regulates the nation’s civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and to promote the common defence and security and to protect the environment.” The key change is that under the ADVANCE Act the NRC is now asigned the task of enabling nuclear use and deployment.
The NRC’s dashboard tracks its progress in meeting various deadlines for providing reports to Congress and revising agency regulations or guidance. Among progress so far it has:
- Signed a Memorandum of Agreement with DOE on advanced nuclear fuels.
- Issued a report on new hiring and pay authorities
- Issued a report on advanced methods of manufacturing and construction.
- Issued a report on environmental reviews
Current initiatives also aim to improve its agility and preparedness to review submittals for nuclear energy projects. It promises to “continue to seek innovative ways to address the use of advanced manufacturing processes, advanced construction techniques, and rapid improvement or iterative innovation processes for nuclear energy projects”.
Despite funding being nearly derailed, the bipartisan ADVANCE Act is designed to accelerate growth in nuclear generation capacity for advanced and small modular reactors. It’s early days, but progress on removing barriers to deployment is key and it’s a clear step forward.
