A bi-partisan, bi-cameral package of nuclear policy reforms that sailed through the House in May has stalled in the Senate, where at least one lawmaker has not consented to pass the bill without a roll call vote.
As of Tuesday, no senator had publicly declared opposition to the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, which on May 10 hitched a ride through the House on the heavily amended Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023.
But weeks after passing the House, the bill with the ADVANCE Act had not cleared the Senate with the body’s unanimous consent, raising the possibility that its author and primary sponsor, Sen. Shelley Capito (R-WVa.), may need to push for a roll call vote on the floor. Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate, so the measure will need plenty of votes from both parties to pass.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) had been an outspoken critic of the ADVANCE Act, and though the version of the bill that cleared the House appeared to have changed in response to some of Markey’s most stinging critiques, Markey’s office did not respond to a query about whether the pacifist, environmentally minded Senator would now support the bill.
On May 31, 2023, the day the ADVANCE Act passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Markey rose and delivered a speech that painted the original version of the act as a sop to the nuclear industry that weakened safety oversight at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by requiring the agency to officially promote U.S. nuclear technology overseas.
In that speech, Markey specifically called out the ADVANCE Act’s section 103, which he said gave the NRC unilateral power to export U.S. nuclear technology, and section 104, which he said could enable exports of nuclear technology to “embarking” countries that wanted to develop nuclear power plants but lacked the means to handle nuclear material safely.
In the version of the ADVANCE Act that passed the house in early May, section 103 had been revised to reinforce existing interagency processes for clearing exports of U.S. nuclear technology. There is no mention in the House-passed bill of “embarking” nations.
The Exchange Monitor has transcribed Markey’s May 31, 2023 speech in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which begins roughly 32 minutes into an official recording of the committee’s business meeting that day.
President Joe Biden (D) as of Monday had yet to say whether he would sign the bill containing the ADVANCE Act, if it passes the Senate.
