Senators planned to vote Tuesday evening on a bill to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, create new federal waste-reporting requirements and ease adoption of U.S. nuclear power technology.
The heavily amended Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, which includes a compromise version of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, was scheduled for a vote on Tuesday, according to a notice posted online by Senate Democrats, who control the chamber with a one-vote majority.
The vote on the bill is the second of two floor votes planned this afternoon in the upper chamber. The first, at 2:15, is to confirm a nominee to serve in President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, .
The vote on the Fire Grants bill was to be preceded by up to two hours of debate on the Senate floor, according to the majority’s website. The bill’s supporters had tried to get the act passed by unanimous consent before Congress’ Memorial Day recess, but at least one Senator stood in the way. Senate Democrats control the chamber with a one-vote majority.
The House passed the bill 393-13 in May.
The version of the ADVANCE Act parceled with the Fire Grants bill runs about 90 pages. If signed into law by President Joe Biden, the bill would, among other things:
- Require biennial reports, by Jan. 1, 2026, from the Department of Energy on the U.S. nuclear-waste inventory and the associated federal financial liability.
- Mandate that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assess every three years whether the agency uses “the most efficient metrics and schedules” to issue licenses.
- Require that the NRC’s licensing of nuclear power plants “does not unnecessarily limit” either “the civilian use of radioactive materials” or “the benefits of civilian use of radioactive materials and nuclear energy technology to society.”
- Allow the NRC commissioner to appoint qualified people to temporary jobs with four-year terms and to broadly address insufficient employee compensation at the civilian nuclear regulator.
- Require the Department of Energy, within one year of the bill’s passage, to study the global civilian nuclear industry and tell Congress how U.S. allies are deploying or planning to deploy nuclear energy.
- Require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to report to Congress, no later than a year after the bill becomes law, about “any engagement between the Commission and the Government of Canada with respect to nuclear waste issues in the Great Lakes Basin.”
Editor’s note, 1:48 p.m. Eastern time, June 18, 2024. The story was updated to include the day on which the vote was to take place.
