A bipartisan bill to boost the development of domestic nuclear power plants passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
In a vote of 88-2, the Senate passed the Accelerated Deployment of Versatile and Advanced Nuclear Power for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, part of the Fire Aid and Safety Act (S.8.70). press release The ADVANCE Act, introduced by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), will now head to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
“Today, we sent the ADVANCE Act to the President’s desk because Congress came together to recognize the importance of nuclear energy to America’s future and get the job done,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) said in a press release.
🚨Bipartisan nuclear bill reaches the President’s desk🚨
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the ADVANCE Act. Senkapito @Senator Carper & @Senator WhitehouseTo give America’s nuclear energy future a major boost! pic.twitter.com/NoqTs0yFuV
— EPW Republicans (@EPWGOP) June 18, 2024
under invoiceAccording to the press release, the plan would provide a number of benefits, including improving the current process for “exporting U.S. technology to international markets,” reducing “regulatory costs for companies seeking to license advanced reactor technology,” and giving the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman additional “tools” to “recruit and retain” more qualified staff “to safely and effectively review and process advanced reactor license applications.”
The bill also gives the NRC the task of evaluating “manufacturing technologies” that could help “build nuclear reactors better, faster, cheaper and smarter.”
The bill would also advance U.S. nuclear energy leadership by giving the NRC “the authority to deliberate in international forums on the development of regulations for advanced nuclear reactors.”
Nuclear energy produces no emissions, Explained It is certified by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a “zero-emission clean energy source.”
“The nuclear power plant generates electricity using nuclear fission reactions that split uranium atoms to produce energy,” the Department of Energy says on its website. “The heat from the fission reaction is used to produce steam to spin turbines that generate electricity without emitting harmful by-products associated with fossil fuels.”
Capito added that the bill “will encourage further innovation and investment in nuclear technology in our country.”
