SMRs & ADVANCED REACTORS | ADVANCE ACT EXPLORED
Above: The Operations Center at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. The NRC is at the sharp end of delivering ADVANCE reforms, particularly in the areas of licensing of new reactors and fuels Source: ANS
“alleged ‘pause’ of certain Federal financial assistance”.
The restraining order says that Federal agencies must not “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations” on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders. The case cited is New York et al. v. Trump, but the prohibition “applies to all awards or obligations – not just those involving the Plaintiff States in the above-referenced case – and also applies to future assistance (not just current or existing awards or obligations).” The restraining order says: “Agencies may exercise their own authority to pause awards or obligations, provided agencies do so purely based on their own discretion – not as a result of the OMB Memo or the President’s Executive Orders – and provided the pause complies with all notice and procedural requirements in the award, agreement, or other instrument relating to such a pause.” In practice, a review of the SMR funding programme would potentially delay but is unlikely to halt it. The review in President Trump’s Executive Order seeks “the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources to identify those agency actions that impose an undue burden” with “particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources”. The SMR programme is more likely to have continued support than other OCED funding programmes, such as long duration storage and direct air capture. The $900m in federal funds available is intended to
“create a credible and sustainable pathway to fleet-level deployment of Gen III+ SMRs” to provide electricity or process heat. The programme offers the prospect of modularity, factory construction and scalability. It says Gen III+ SMRs “may be able to revitalize and leverage the service and supply chain infrastructure supporting the existing fleet of light water reactor designs, thus providing a near-term path for new nuclear deployments.” To
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deliver that a demonstration project is “critical” and the programme will give priority to projects with the highest probability of a successful deployment, the greatest potential to develop an order book as well as adding to the resilience of the domestic nuclear industry. The project funding will be available in two tiers:
● Tier 1 will provide up to $800m for one or two ‘first mover’ teams of utility, reactor vendor, constructor and off-takers.
● Tier 2 will provide up to $100m for ‘fast followers’ to address gaps in areas such as design, licensing, supplier development, and site preparation.
The ADVANCE Act While companies bid for the SMR Pathway to Deployment funding, the ADVANCE Act attempts to address the governance and licensing of new reactor development and remove barriers to deployment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is at the sharp end of delivering the reforms, particularly in the areas of licensing of new reactors and fuels, and it has set up an online ‘Implementation Status Dashboard”. The Act affects a wide range of NRC activities. It supports the recruitment and retention of the NRC workforce, adds flexibility to the NRC’s budgeting process, enhancing the regulatory framework for advanced reactors and fusion technology, and requiring initiatives to support the NRC’s efficient, timely, and predictable reviews of license applications. It covers:
● American Nuclear Leadership: This empowers the NRC to expand efforts to collaborate with international stakeholders on advanced nuclear reactor regulation, development, and export activities, and directs DOE) to improve its process for approving the export of American nuclear technologies to international markets.
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