New legislation on enhancing nuclear energy research and developing new nuclear reactor technologies has reached the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) in January introduced the legislation, called the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act of 2017, which is intended to enhance civilian research and development of nuclear energy technologies. The bill highlights the need to maintain research programs and lab infrastructure at the Energy Department’s national laboratories, support technology transfer from the labs to the private sector, and provide technical means to reduce nuclear proliferation risks.
It calls on the secretary of energy to implement a program to develop new reactor technologies through high-performance computation modeling and simulation, and would also authorize the creation of a National Reactor Innovation Center to “enable the testing and demonstration of reactor concepts to be proposed and funded, in whole or in part, by the private sector.”
The bill would require the secretary to submit to Congress a report that assesses the department’s capabilities in overseeing privately funded experimental advanced nuclear reactors. It would require a separate report with two alternative 10-year budget plans for civilian nuclear energy research and development.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the bill Thursday, sending it to the full chamber for consideration. Its co-sponsors are Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).
