POLICY & FINANCE | TRUMP’S NUCLEAR PLAN
continues to be funded, receiving $20m in 2023 (which also saw $120m for Risk Reduction for Future Demonstrations, and $60m for the ARDP Demonstration Reactor). In 2017 the Trump administration also brought the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) at INL back online, after more than two decades in standby mode. TREAT allows scientists to examine fuel performance under simulated accident conditions. Trump’s first term saw ONE begin “looking into multiple options to provide small amounts of high assay low- enriched uranium (HALEU) for testing and demonstration of these technologies”. HALEU is not currently commercially available from US suppliers and the DOE is pursuing several pathways to secure a domestic supply, and the Energy Act of 2020 established the HALEU Availability Program to ensure access to HALEU and spur demand for private investment in HALEU production. That programme continued to be funded by the Biden- Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, which noted that gaps in supply could delay the deployment of advanced reactors in a timeframe that supports the nation’s net-zero emissions targets by 2050. Recently the DOE promised up to $16m through a new HALEU Transportation Package Funding Opportunity to “research, develop, and acquire Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing for HALEU transportation packages”. It said many advanced reactor designs require HALEU to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over
current technologies, but there are limited licensed options to transport HALEU. Programmes like the development and siting of new types of small reactor that are US-designed and built would seem to sit happily in the new administration’s stated plans to boost domestic energy supplies (and potentially export SMRs to overseas customers). Initiatives like the HALEU Availability Program, to ensure the US can supply its own fuel, also seem to be on-message for Trump. Domestically, it suggests the US nuclear industry could see its star rise under the new administration, even as other low-carbon technologies such as offshore wind lose political support. Indeed, while nuclear progress and support probably has to take a different route than the provisions covering low-carbon generation introduced under the Biden administration, such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), domestic nuclear is expected to receive continued support under thew new Trump presidency.
The industry could also have support from the new administration on the international stage. The ONE named as its final achievement during Trump’s
first term that it saw DOE launch the NICE Future initiative in 2018. This global effort led by the USA, Canada, and Japan aimed to “ensure nuclear energy receives appropriate representation in high-level discussions about clean energy”. The industry will hope to retain that backing in the coming years. ■
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