Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) tells utility commissioners that the federal government must subsidize pioneering developers to be competitive.
WASHINGTON—Americans invented nuclear power, were the first to commercialize it for electric generation, and are spearheading global innovation in small modular reactors and other emerging technologies that will revolutionize 21st century energy and economies.
But the United States is a regulatory “dinosaur” and without dramatic revisions in licensing and permitting—and federal subsidies for pioneering “first movers”—Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) fears the nation will “surrender this leadership” in nuclear energy development to Russia and China within a decade and never regain its edge.
Since 2017, “Russian and Chinese reactor designs have accounted for 87 percent of new installed nuclear reactors worldwide,” he told public utility commissioners, state regulators, and electric grid operators attending the National Association of Regional Utility Commissioners (NARUC) at The Westin DC Downtown on Feb. 25.
“This is something we developed and that they now dominate,” he said. “This is allowing them to improve technologies and invest in their defense on an industrial basis. This gives Russia and Chinese dominance over the countries they supply; their grip will last generations.”
According to a June 2022 report to Congress by the Council on Foreign Relations, Kremlin subsidies allow Rosatom—Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation—to underbid competitors by 20 percent to 50 percent, while its government-to-government loans have enticed 11 countries in less than a decade to “partner” in 35 reactor projects.
China’s National Nuclear Cooperation agency, its state-owned nuclear vendor, is building nuclear plants in Romania, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Argentina, and Iran as part of its Belt-and-Road Initiative.
While American companies are tapped for their expertise, and their cutting-edge advances are incorporated into reactors by electric generators around the world, they cannot compete in securing contracts to build reactors because they are under-bid by state-subsidized Russian and Chinese contractors, Risch said.
As a result, “even though we invented it, a lot of countries are actually ahead of us” in developing new nuclear power plants, he said.
“The work we are doing in America in advanced nuclear technology is undoubtedly a national security issue,” Risch said. “The ‘nuclear renaissance’ going on here in America is also going on more substantially, more robustly, in other parts of the world.”
The United States produces about 30 percent of global commercial nuclear generation and is the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), with 54 commercially operating nuclear power plants that house 94 reactors in 28 states. They produce 12 percent of the nation’s electricity generation capacity.
But only two new plants have been licensed and permitted since 1990; the last one is the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia that opened after years of delays and regulatory entanglements in April 2024. The average U.S. nuclear power plant is 42 years old.
This must change, Risch said. “Nuclear is the silver bullet—limitless clean energy,” he said. “But to realize this opportunity, breakthroughs must move ahead. We must pioneer new technologies that must reach commercial viability” swiftly.
He said the breakthroughs are happening at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 17 national laboratories, including its Idaho National Laboratory (INL) where two new reactor designs are near certification, the first such breakthroughs to pass DOE muster in a half-century.
“The work at INL [is the] driving force in charting the course for the future,” Risch said, citing recent advancements in the MARVEL reactor as “the first one in decades” to be on the cusp of certification and licensing.
The MARVEL, Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation, project began in 2020. It is a small modular micro-reactor (SMR) that can provide up to 20 gigawatts (GWs) of power and can be installed and used in standardized, one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter fashion.
A second SMR project at INL, Project Pele, a mobile SMR, could be certified, licensed, and commercially available by 2026, according to the DOE.
But it’s a good bet these technologies will be used overseas before they are installed by U.S. utility operators under regional electricity providers because the nation “is the dinosaur among competing nations in regulating, licensing, and supporting nuclear energy,” Risch said.
A longtime nuclear energy advocate who cochairs the Senate Advanced Nuclear Caucus with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the three-term senator and former Idaho governor was one of the key sponsors of the ADVANCE Act adopted in June 2024. “ADVANCE” stands for Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy.
The new law aims to boost advanced nuclear technology by requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to lead international regulation, streamline exports, reduce licensing costs, incentivize reactor deployment, and enhance efficiency in fuel cycles and resource management.
The NRC also must report to Congress continuing efforts to simplify and accelerate the environmental review process for nuclear reactor license applications under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
But Congress must do more and do so quickly, Risch said. While it is “essential to improve the licensing and permitting process,” the federal government must “de-risk this technology and support early movers.”
He sought to do that in his proposed Accelerating Reliable Capacity (ARC) Act filed in December 2024 that he said he will re-introduce “soon” in early 2025.
The ARC Act aims “to accelerate investment in new commercial nuclear projects by minimizing cost-overrun risk,” Risch said. “Whenever anyone tries to do anything brand new, all sorts of risks and obstacles” stymie investment and momentum.
Federal subsidies are not something the Idaho conservative normally views favorably, never mind promotes in proposed legislation, but in this case, he said, they’re necessary to advance innovation that can define the 21st century.
“Almost everyone is interested in nuclear technology but almost no one wants to be the first out of the gate” because of costs and long regulatory timelines, Risch said. “Investors are always risk adverse. We must ensure we have the right regulatory environment. Our regulatory process must keep pace” with technological advances being developed in the United States.
“Congress has and will continue to invest in developing new reactor technologies but there is still … uncertainty about costs and timelines,” he said.
The proposed ARC Act “will create a limited risk-reduction program to develop large commercial reactors. No one can do it without some kind of federal guarantee and enhanced financial terms” that include a federal 50/50 match up to $1.2 billion, Risch said.
“This is not a hand out, but a hand up,” he said. “The goal is to reduce risk, spur investment to overcome hurdles in investing in new technologies critical to solving the challenge in meeting the need for clean base load power.”
This “may seem to be a distant issue” to the nearly 2,200 utility commissioners, state regulators, and regional transmission operators attending NARUC’s Winter Policy Conference, Risch said, but they are the ones on the front lines in supporting and approving projects, and in ensuring state licensing and permitting aligns with federal deregulation.
“If the United States doesn’t lead in nuclear technology, we risk falling behind, U.S. industry will risk falling behind,” he said. “The United States must have a thriving nuclear industry. Nuclear energy is America’s creation. Its development powered our rise to prominence and when we look at the future, it is the unequivocal answer” to meeting the nation’s energy needs.