ADVANCE ACT EXPLORED | SMRs & ADVANCED REACTORS
One step forward for US SMRs?
The US ADVANCE Act aims to smooth the way for new advanced reactors and SMRs. But commercialisation funding for the technology almost fell casualty to a presidential order.
SIGNED INTO LAW IN JULY 2024, the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advance Nuclear for Clean Energy Act (the ADVANCE Act) had bipartisan support among US legislators. The Act is designed to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by smoothing the path for advanced nuclear reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs) by accelerating licensing and creating new incentives for such technologies. In a commentary on the Act, law firm Sidley Austin said it “shows a sincere appetite among US policymakers to innovate regulation in an industry viewed as critical but somewhat stagnant of late.” The ADVANCE Act coincided with an announcement in
July 2024 of $900m in Federal Department of Energy (DOE) funding for Generation III+ reactors, specifically the SMR Pathway to Deployment. Bids for the funding stream were due to be submitted by 17 January. Soon afterwards, DOE’s funding streams for energy technologies came under threat.
On 20 January President Donald Trump signed an
Executive Order on Unleashing American Energy that redirected US energy policy and set out an “Immediate Review of All Agency Actions that Potentially Burden the Development of Domestic Energy Resources. Following this Executive Order, on 27 January a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) required “Federal agencies to identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements,” and to suspend distribution of funding while the review was under way.
The funding pause was set to go into effect on 28
January, but OMB rescinded the memo on 29 January. Meanwhile, on 3 February a Notice of Temporary
Restraining Order was posted on the funding opportunities page of DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration (OCED), which lists the SMR funding opportunity with others. The restraining order refers to a challenge to an
Above: Designed to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by smoothing the path for advanced nuclear reactors and
small modular reactors, the ADVANCE Act had bipartisan support among US legislators
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