The House was scheduled to vote Friday on a $370 billion energy, climate and tax bill that included tax credits for nuclear power plants, a budget increase for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy and more than half a billion dollars for advanced nuclear reactor fuel.
A schedule maintained by the office of House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) shows lawmakers were to return from their annual August recess in their home districts to vote on the legislation: a retooled, scaled-back version of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.
President Joe Biden was expected to sign the bill, now known as the Inflation Reduction Act, as soon as the House could get it to his desk.
This slimmer version of the President’s second signature domestic spending bill would provide tax credits to operating nuclear power plants, $150 million over five years for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy to “to carry out activities for infrastructure and general plant projects,” and some $700 million over the next four years to develop a domestic supply chain for the energy dense nuclear fuel called high assay low enriched uranium, or HALEU.
HALEU contains by weight 19.75% of the Uranium 235 isotope. That is upper boundary of what is considered low-enriched uranium. Some reactors that have not yet made it off the drawing board require HALEU fuel. Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., is working on a HALEU cascade at DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio.
The Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday. The vote was 51-50 with all Democrats in favor, all Republicans opposed and Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
The Senate is evenly divided, with 50 Democrats and Republicans. That gives Democrats bare-minimum control of the chamber. To pass the big spending bill Sunday, Democrats used a process called reconciliation, which allows some budget legislation to clear the upper chamber with a simple majority instead of a two-thirds majority.
