The Senate on Thursday passed its version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which this year is loaded with policy reforms for federal nuclear-energy programs.
The annual military policy bill passed 86-11. It already contained the full text of Sen. Shelly Capito’s (R-WVa.) Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2023 when it arrived on the Senate floor last week, and Senators this week added, by a near unanimous vote, an amendment that aims to accelerate the return of U.S. uranium enrichment while requiring the Department of Energy to buy a large tranche of high assay low-enriched uranium: a feedstock for some advanced nuclear reactors.
Capito’s proposals focus largely on encouraging exports of U.S. nuclear technology, though they also also are designed to make the Nuclear Regulatory Commission more efficient and require more thorough reporting of U.S. nuclear waste and the taxpayer expenses associated with it.
The Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) now must be reconciled with the House’s version of the 2024 NDAA, which passed July 14 and does not contain the nuclear energy policies in Capito’s bill. Congressional leaders had not appointed conferees or scheduled a conference at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
Though the House NDAA is silent on commercial nuclear energy and materials, several bills pending before the House Energy and Commerce Committee include proposals similar to some found in the Senate NDAA.
One area of overlap between the Senate NDAA and pending house legislation is extending the $13-billion nuclear-industry liability cap known as the Price-Anderson Act. Capito’s language in the Senate NDAA proposes extending the cap by 20 years to 2045.
A bill by Rep. William Johnson (R-Ohio) in the House Energy and Commerce Committee would extend the cap by 40 years, to 2065. In all, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has produced 15 bills this session that touch in some way on commercial nuclear energy and materials.
Aside from the Price Anderson extension, the Senate NDAA would also:
- Require annual reports, by 2025, 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.
- Give the Secretary of Commerce $35 million annually to parcel out as economic development grants for communities affected by the closure of an NRC-licensed nuclear power plant. The grant money would be available from 2023 through 2028 and be administered by the assistant secretary of commerce for economic development.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-Wyo.) amendment to the Senate NDAA would require the Department of Energy by 2027 to purchase at least 20 metric tons of high assay, low-enriched uranium from either U.S. companies or U.S. allies. Barrasso’s amendment passed 93-3 on Thursday.
