The House Armed Services Committee passed the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would authorize $160 million for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy in a 44-12 vote Thursday night.
The $160 million is level to what the NDAA authorized the Office of Nuclear Energy last fiscal year. On May 20, the House Appropriations Committee passed 34-25 its version of a bill that would give $1.8 billion to the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
The annual defense policy bill, which sets spending limits for major defense programs, now heads to the House floor for consideration after 14 hours of debate, which ended at midnight.
Among the hundreds of amendments discussed during the NDAA markup, Rep. Patrick Harrigan (R-N.C.) offered an amendment that would order the secretary of defense to conduct a program for the deployment, operation and evaluation of a transportable microreactor in the area of the responsibility of the United States Indo-Pacific Command.
The secretary of defense would also be tasked with creating a budget for the microreactor program come fiscal 2028, according to the amendment.
Harrigan said that the goal of demonstration of the Indo-Pacific reactor would be by Jan. 1, 2030. He emphasized the U.S. has already made large investments in microreactors, and it is time to turn those studies into capabilities.
“Think, if we look at the strategic risks that we have, certainly Indo-Pacom is among the top,” Harrigan said. “It is also the most fuel-vulnerable theater that we have. This program will fix that without this amendment. Our efforts risk ending as demonstrations rather than capabilities.”
Harrigan’s microreactor amendment passed by a 47-9 vote.