The Joe Biden administration’s budget request proves they’re willing to help out the nuclear energy industry as part of its clean energy agenda, the Secretary of Energy said at a trade group conference this week.
“The administration isn’t just ready to talk the talk, we’re willing to walk the walk” on nuclear energy, said Jennifer Granholm at Tuesday’s session of the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) annual Nuclear Energy Assembly, held virtually.
During her brief statement to the industry conference, Granholm outlined the Biden administration’s recent budget proposal, which included a cash injection for the nation’s existing nuclear fleet in the form of a $750 million credit program. She also said the administration is “looking ahead” with investments in advanced nuclear energy. Some of those new technologies, like small modular reactors, could be online “within the decade,” Granholm said.
Granholm also acknowledged the administration’s request for “consent-based siting” funding for a federal interim storage facility to house the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. The Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2022 budget request includes funding for a “near-term solution,” she said. “A long-term solution, we hope, will be developed by Congress,” Granholm said.
Granholm ended her address to NEI Tuesday by asking for industry’s cooperation as the Biden administration looks to include nuclear energy in its clean energy agenda.
“Here’s the thing,” Granholm said. “We need experts like yourselves standing up and speaking out if we’re going to get these proposals over the line. The only way to finally get our arms around the climate crisis is by working together.”
At the same conference on Monday, Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Christopher Hanson said that his agency will focus on modernization of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants and developing regulations for advanced reactors.
NRC wants to ensure the nation’s current fleet of nuclear plants are outfitted with new technologies like accident-tolerant fuels and digital instrumentation, Hanson said. The commission will also ensure that aging management and other required programs are in place for existing power plants, he said.
It’s “an incredible time” to be in the NRC, Hanson said. “I fully expect us to be busy.”
The agency will also continue to work on its Part 53 rulemaking for advanced reactors, which Hanson said the commission aims to make “efficient, transparent and clear.” The new regulations will provide licensees some certainty, but also some public assurance of safety and environmental protection, Hanson said. The commission will also work to ensure the new rulemaking incorporates new technologies in its regulations while remaining “usable and accessible” for all interested parties, Hanson said.
The agency has previously signaled that the ball is in industry’s court where advanced reactors are concerned. During a May 18 meeting of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, the chief of the commission’s Material Control and Accounting Branch James Rubenstone said that NRC doesn’t want to “get ahead” of advanced reactor programs that aren’t yet operational.
