In the midst of the longest government shutdown in US history, a rare case of bipartisan energy success has largely been drowned out in the noise.
US President Donald Trump signed a law on Monday aimed at accelerating the development of a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors. The Republican government’s efforts to revitalize the coal industry clash with Democratic plans to address climate change and the clean energy transition. So this is a rare case of cooperation between the two parties and the second case of cooperation on advanced nuclear technology in the last four months.
The Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act calls on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make its review process “technology inclusive” by 2028. The process was developed for the light water reactors that dominated the industry for the last half century, but new reactors are emerging from laboratories and startups using radically different technologies. The law also calls for more transparency about the costs and deadlines of NRC reviews.
“We really acknowledge that many of our nuclear energy policies and institutions dealing with nuclear energy are quite out of date,” said Jessica Lovering, who serves as director of energy at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental think tank that supports nuclear technology and policy explored.
The NRC is unaffected by the partial shutdown that has slowed renewable energy approvals and forced hundreds of thousands of federal employees to work without pay. The budget will be funded through fiscal 2019, according to law firm Morgan Lewis. But even with the office open, the NRC’s review process of what the Nuclear Innovation and Modernization Act seeks to address is slow.
This follows another nuclear aid bill that was passed with bipartisan support and signed by Trump in September.
The Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act called for a cost-sharing grant program to help advanced reactors pay for the lengthy licensing process and build a fast neutron source to test advanced technologies. The U.S. currently lacks such a facility, forcing companies to look overseas to test certain reactor designs.
Big win for advanced reactor advocates
The two acts taken together remove several wish list items for the various stakeholders interested in commercializing advanced reactors.
Old school light water reactor construction has virtually disappeared from the US thanks to enormous construction costs, long construction times, and public concerns about the technology. New technologies promise an antidote: They’ll be smaller, safer, and easier to install, say their proponents.
There are more interested parties than the traditional nuclear industry itself.
After decades of technological stagnation, there is a group of new startups entering the market. A vocal contingent of climate activists insists that nuclear power, as the largest source of carbon-free electricity, will play a crucial role in decarbonizing electricity (others would rather shut it down and put all their chips on wind and sun).
On the more conservative side, nuclear power provides a reliable 24/7 power source that the Trump Department of Energy has argued for as a bulwark against the intermittent fluctuations in wind and solar systems.
It is also the living legacy of American ingenuity, which is in danger of being co-opted by Russia or China. And it could create jobs as the test sites and production move forward.
time is money
Only one of the new cohort of nuclear companies, NuScale, has officially started the NRC review process. Significantly, this company is still using light water reactors that have been scaled down small enough to be made in a factory; it didn’t have to run the gauntlet with a basically exotic reactor design. NuScale also received a $ 217 million co-payment grant from the DOE to fund the review, which will take several years.
The NRC gets most of its funding from fees paid by applicants, Lovering noted. The longer it takes to review a new and unprecedented design, the more the company has to pay for it.
The recast of the regulations should avoid some headaches by tailoring questions around the new technology rather than focusing the review on what makes sense for light water reactors. Saving time saves money in the truest sense of the word.
“A lot has happened within the NRC, but legislation that tells them to make the rules and implement them is a big change,” said Lovering. “Many advanced reactor companies have to do this before they can begin licensing.”
While the NRC will not be affected by the government shutdown, the approval process will still be long and expensive. To counteract this, the new legislation calls for “predictable and efficient” licensing that should at least give companies a better sense of how long they have to wait.
The two laws launched a number of small efforts that could lead to more efficient testing of new technologies. This does not yet guarantee the market success of progressive nuclear energy: As an expensive new electricity carrier, it has to assert itself in a market increasingly dominated by cheap renewables. Utilities tend to be risk averse when adopting new energy technologies, and nuclear energy poses more public relations challenges than most.
Future laws could focus on stimulating demand, Lovering said. However, approval must come first, and that is something Republicans and Democrats agree on, albeit little in the energy sector.
“It’s a rare thing where both sides should come together and agree that we should make it easier for these … American companies to develop advanced energy technology,” she said.
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