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This brief authored by NIA Executive Director Judi Greenwald connects the role of advanced nuclear energy in meeting climate and energy security goals with the urgent need for NRC reform to enable advanced nuclear energy. It outlines the short-, medium- and long-term NRC reforms that are necessary to achieve that goal. It provides recommendations for action by Congress and the NRC and highlights several of NIA's recommendations for improving licensing efficiency. NIA developed this brief to serve as a guide for policymakers, the NRC itself, and key stakeholders in considering and then taking action to ensure the NRC can "become an agile, modern, risk-informed, and performance-based regulator to successfully meet this moment."

Washington D.C. Since 2016, The Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp (NIB) has enhanced the careers of students and young professionals working or looking to work in the advanced nuclear energy sector. As the demand for experienced leadership, new ideas, and professional development in this field continues to grow, NIB will be an increasingly important recruitment pipeline for diverse, creative, and energetic young talent.

Looking forward, NIB is preparing to embark on the next phase of its development by focusing on three core initiatives:

• Strengthening its commitments to innovation education and increasing diversity in the nuclear energy sector
• Expanding its engagement with a broader range of communities and industries
• Recruiting talent from underrepresented disciplines and professions

Before embarking on these changes, NIB started by learning from those at the center of our program:
the 151 participants of our first six Bootcamps who now make up our alumni network. The information in
this report is largely based on survey results and interviews from this group. We hope that you will find
the information and stories below as motivating as we do.

NIA Research Director Patrick White presented an American Nuclear Society, Community of Practice Webinar on "Next Steps on 10 CFR Part 53: Updates on Developing a New Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors."

The webinar provided a history of nuclear regulation in the United States, the development process for 10 CFR Part 53, and updates on the current status and next steps for the new regulatory framework for advanced reactors. 

The presentation slides can be found here.

This letter expresses NIA’s support of President Biden’s nomination of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Christopher T. Hanson to another five-year term and urges the Senate to move swiftly to confirm his nomination.

This report reviews the current licensing process for new nuclear power plants at the NRC and concludes that it is unlikely the agency could reasonably scale existing licensing processes as they are currently implemented to meet the potential future high volume licensing demand (tens to hundreds of new reactors per year) to meet mid-century climate goals. It also identifies major licensing processes that most significantly constrain NRC licensing capacity limitations relevant to future high volume licensing. Finally, it presents three specific proposals that aim to enable high volume licensing of advanced nuclear energy by the NRC in the long term.

To view NIA's press statement regarding the publication of this paper, click here. 

This report by NIA provides new technical analyses of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) production cost and the funding requirements for federal programs to support HALEU availability for advanced reactors. The production cost analyses highlight and quantify the role of different cost drivers (including both existing uranium mining, conversion, and enrichment capacity as well as new HALEU enrichment and deconversion capacity) in the cost of domestic HALEU production. These production cost-drivers are the starting point for commercial and government efforts to catalyze domestic HALEU production. The federal HALEU availability program evaluations we present characterize the Congressional appropriation needs to catalyze private investment new HALEU production capacity under a wide range of market conditions. These detailed program evaluations reinforce on-going work by Congress to secure additional legislative authorizations and appropriations for domestic HALEU production. This report provides a strong technical, economic, and policy basis for on-going efforts by Congress, the Biden Administration, and the U.S. Department of Energy to catalyze new domestic commercial production of HALEU for advanced reactors.

To see this report's summary for policymakers that focuses on the full report’s high-level policy takeaways, click here. 

This summary for policymakers provides high-level policy takeaways from NIA's report, "Characterizing an Emerging Market for High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium Production". This report by NIA provides new technical analyses of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) production cost and the funding requirements for federal programs to support HALEU availability for advanced reactors. To read the full report, click here. 

This 2023 update of the Guide incorporates new information since the initial 2021 release.

This Guide serves as an introduction to advanced nuclear energy technologies and policies for state-level policymakers and stakeholders. The first part of this Guide describes advanced reactor technology and its benefits, provides an overview of enabling federal policies, and reviews state options to incentivize local development of advanced reactors. The second part of the Brief provides case studies of emerging state leaders in these technologies:     

• nuclear projects in Wyoming
• Energy Northwest’s plans in Washington State
• the state of play in Virginia and the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium
• Texas’ leadership in deploying advanced nuclear energy
• the Nuclear Alternative Project in Puerto Rico

Finally, the last section of this Brief is a compendium of topical briefs that elaborate the characteristics of advanced reactors with respect to safety, economic benefits, waste management, the flexibility and dispatchability of advanced nuclear power, its timing and development. These briefs also include one-pagers on key provisions found in the IRA to spur nuclear innovation.

This paper focuses the impact of the new Inflation Reduction Act clean electricity tax credits on new nuclear energy projects, using the same tools developed for an initial 2021 NIA analysis. The results show that the current IRA tax credits effectively reduce the costs of electricity produced by advanced nuclear projects, both for first-of-a-kind and nth-of-a-kind projects, which will enable advanced nuclear reactors to compete effectively with other clean and firm generation options.

This is a letter, signed by NIA and other non-government organizations, that recommends the NRC develop a Policy Statement on efficient, effective and predictable licensing of new reactors. The organizations signing this letter agree that, at a minimum, there are five main elements that need to be addressed within this new Policy Statement.