Increases proposed for DOE NE, NRC in in House subcommittee bill

Nuclear energy spending would receive a boost in fiscal 2026 legislation laid out July 13 by the House Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water subcommittee.

In the proposed House Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations subcommittee bill, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would receive $1.795 billion, which is $110 million more than the fiscal 2025 enacted level.

Detailed in the Office of Nuclear Energy’s increase is continued funding for its Advanced Reactors Demonstration Program, increased funding for its Advanced Nuclear Fuel Availability program and repurposed funding to accelerate advanced reactor and small modular reactor demonstration projects.

The Advanced Nuclear Fuel Availability program focuses on production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). HALEU is vital material needed to develop and deploy advanced nuclear reactors.

Along with the Office of Nuclear Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is an independent agency, could see an uptick in its fiscal 2026 budget. The agency was allocated $971.5 million, which was $27.4 million more than its fiscal 2025 budget.

The House Appropriations committee said NRC’s budget should expand the regulator’s capacity for the review, licensing and oversight of new nuclear reactors.

The fiscal 2026 House Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill would support President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda. The bill emphasizes baseload nuclear energy. The Trump administration has plans to expand the U.S. nuclear energy capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050. 

That is an ambitious goal given in 2024 the United States, which currently has the largest commercial nuclear fleet in the world, has a generating capacity of nearly 97 gigawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration.