Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act bill’s sponsors have attracted bipartisan support. They know that it will likely need to hitch a ride on a larger legislative vehicle moving through Congress. The “ADVANCE Act” authors may have a more unconventional target for their bill. Their target is a still-nebulous China competition bill from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Carper said that “Sen. Schumer’s working on putting together another, well, I think he’s called it a China bill. That might be a possibility for the bill as well.” Schumer has only described his work on the China bill in broad terms, but no text is available yet. Schumer said that he intends to develop a package aimed at competing with China ahead of the August recess.
     The ADVANCE Act does contain several provisions to boost U.S. nuclear exports to better compete with state-owned nuclear enterprises found in countries like China and Russia.
     Supporters of the ADVANCE Act are trying to generate as much support as possible to give the bill a better chance. Capito said, “We’re socializing it with some more members to see if we need to incorporate some different ideas in there.” Sponsors are still attempting to gain the support of progressives who initially voted against the bill in committee because of proliferation concerns over the bill’s nuclear export provisions. Senate EEPW staff are still negotiating potential changes to address those concerns with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
     Both of these Senators voted against the bill in committee. Markey said, “There are nonproliferation concerns that are essential to ensuring that there’s a gold standard of safety in nuclear exports. Otherwise, plutonium and uranium could end up in the hands of the wrong people.”
     In the House, Republican nuclear boosters are working on a separate track. They are coalescing around an effort from House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to ban Russian uranium from being used in U.S. reactors.
     The H.R. 1042 bill is the latest and most prominent effort to reduce Russian nuclear dependence by slowly phasing out and eventually banning Russian uranium imports by 2028. About twenty percent of the enriched uranium in the U.S. is imported from Russia. Sponsors of the bill are taking a more conventional approach in getting the bill passed. They hope to get it to the House floor as a stand alone bill. They are also moving on other efforts to propagate small modular reactors (SMRs) and overhaul regulatory processes.
     Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) is the Chair of the House E&C Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security. He has taken the lead in forwarding a broader nuclear agenda in his Blueprint for Nuclear Innovation and Competitiveness. It lays out policy goals like revamping licensing pathways for the next generation and expedited environmental reviews of nuclear reactors. It also has ambitions to reduce emergency planning zones surrounding those advanced reactors.
     Duncan said that House Republicans would prioritize their own licensing reforms and other nuclear work such as the uranium ban bill before looking at Senate bills. However, he has shown a willingness to work with the Senate in a bipartisan manner. The ADVANCE Act does archive some of his regulatory reform goals. Duncan said, “Right now we’re trying to get domestic sourcing of enriched uranium, meaning [Rodgers’] bill, to the floor. Then, we’ll look at what we can do to propagate SMRs and advanced technology.”
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Part 1 of 3 Parts
     Congress has seen a serious increase of bipartisan nuclear legislation that would produce a massive build-out of reactors and fuel supplies over the next decade. Sponsors of bills and other supporters need to figure out how to get those bills through Congress in a tough legislative year. It won’t be as easy as it was in years past when a Democratic majority in both chambers allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for uranium mining. Congress also passed pivotal nuclear production tax credits as well as subsidies to keep struggling nuclear power plants online in landmark plans like the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law.
     Today we have a split Congress with a razon-thin House Republican majority. This new political reality will make it difficult to sign any legislation into law. The nuclear industry is watching Congressional action closely. It is not satisfied with the tax breaks and funds they have received in recent years. Nuclear industry leaders and their allies say that Congress still needs to act on critical areas that are impeding nuclear buildout. These include limiting complex environmental regulations and securing a domestic fuel supply for future reactors.
     Tom Carper (D-Del.) is the Chair of the Senate Environmental, Environment and Public Works Committee (EEPW). He said, “If you look at the IRA, your tax provisions here, if you look at other investments we made … we’ve provided great incentives. We want to make sure that we have the regulatory structure in place to help facilitate and move that forward safely.”
     Nuclear energy was once viewed as too marred by a history of accidents and an intractable waste problem. It is now a common-ground energy sources between traditional Republican boosters and climate-minded Democrats. Many Democrats and environmentalists are increasingly convinced that the low-carbon energy is pivotal for the transition to a clear energy future. Even that momentum may not be sufficient. Congressional nuclear backers may have to be more creative to get their priorities into law.
     None of the new nuclear bills currently circulating through Congress represents the bipartisan momentum behind the energy source better than the “Accelerating Deployment of Versatile Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act,” from Carper and the top Republican on EEPW, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. The S. 111 bill already has nineteen co-sponsors in the Senate split nearly evenly between Republicans and Democrats. The bill cleared committee in May on a sixteen to three vote. The legislation would cut down licensing fees for new reactors and provide additional funding to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hire additional staff.
     John Kotek is the senior vice president of policy development and public affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute. He said, “The ‘ADVANCE Act’ does some important things with respect to nuclear, export licensing activities, including establishment of an international nuclear reactor export innovation branch. Activities like that are really important.”
     The bill’s sponsors have attracted bipartisan support. They know that it will likely need to hitch a ride on a larger legislative vehicle moving through Congress.
Please read Part 2 next

     Safety is one of the most important concerns with respect to nuclear power plants. A great deal depends on the safety features incorporated in the reactor designs. The design of the fuel pellets and rods for a nuclear reactor can also contribute to making them safer to operate. 
     Framatome has just signed a collaboration agreement to test its PROtect enhanced accident tolerant fuel (EATF) technology. Four lead fuel assemblies will be loaded into one of EDF’s French reactors by the end of 2023.
     Accident tolerant fuel is a term used to describe new technologies that enhance the tolerance of light-water reactor fuel under severe accident conditions. It also offers improvements to reactor performance and economics. EATF fuels may incorporate the use of new materials and designs for cladding and fuel pellets.
     Framatome EATF technology is supported by the France Relance recovery plan and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The technology is based on advanced chromium coating applied to zirconium alloy cladding, and chromia-enhanced fuel pellets.
     PROtech EATF is more tolerant to loss of active cooling in the reactor core for longer period because its reduced oxidation behavior increases “coping time” according to Framatome.
     Framatome, EDF and French Alternative Energies and the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have collectively worked on the chromium coated cladding approach for almost ten years. Framatome’s development efforts led to the first lead fuel rods being inserted in a Swiss and U.S. reactor in 2019. This was followed by the first complete fuel assembly consisting of one hundred percent chromia-enhanced pellets and chromium-coated rods delivered and inserted in a U.S. nuclear power plant in the spring outage of 2021. Recently, the second eighteen-month fuel cycle in a U.S. commercial reactor was completed. Framatome’s PROtect EATF solutions have been implemented in four different nuclear power plants in the U.S. and one in Europe.
     These lead fuel assemblies will be manufactured in Framatome French facilities. Framatome said that the results obtained during the EDF irradiation campaign will server to confirm the performance of this technology in a French reactor. It will support the final approval from the French nuclear safety regulators, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire.
     Lionel Gaiffe is the senior executive vice president of Framatome’s Fuel Business Unit. He said, “Our ambitious PROtect program puts us at the forefront of developing and implementing inherently safe fuel technologies for long-term plant operations. This agreement cements our position and confirms the confidence of our customers in our EATF technology, developed together with the knowledge, skills and expertise of our partners and leaders across the nuclear sector.”
     Three companies including Framatome, GE Hitachi with GNF and Westinghouse are working with the DoE to develop new fuels under its Accident Tolerant Fuel Program.
     In July of 2022, Westinghouse and EDF agreed to jointly explore the functionalities of Westinghouse’s EnCore ATF technology. Westinghouse stated that it will study the use of the fuel in an EDF reactor for potential deployment across the EDF nuclear fleet after 2030. Westinghouse said that it would deliver EnCore assemblies with lead test rods to EDF from its fuel fabrication facility in Västerås, Sweden, by 2023.