Senate advances bill to promote collaboration between nuclear industry and national labs

The Senate advanced Wednesday the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act, which aims to increase collaboration between private industry, universities and national laboratories on developing and bringing to market advanced nuclear technologies.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) led a bipartisan group of Senators in introducing the bill in January 2017. The legislation now moves to the House for consideration.

“This legislation will help to spark a new generation of nuclear technology,” Sen. Whitehouse said. “Our national labs and research universities are doing work that can transform the industry, and may even help remedy some of the big challenges the country faces like managing nuclear waste. This bill will help industry collaborate with those institutions to bring new technologies forward and compete against polluting forms of energy like coal and natural gas. Thank you to Senators Crapo, Booker, and the bipartisan group who joined me to push this important legislation through the Senate.”

The legislation would direct the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to prioritize collaboration with private industry to test advanced reactor concepts. It would authorize the creation of a National Reactor Innovation Center on which DOE, national labs and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) would collaborate. The bill would also establish a new DOE cost-sharing program to help advanced reactors cover pre-licensing fees during the regulatory approval process.