Christian Smith
The Senate on Tuesday approved a package aimed at bolstering the country’s nuclear energy sector, sending it to President Biden’s desk.
The vote was 88-2. Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposed the measure.
While a White House spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Biden will sign the bill, national climate advisor Ali Zaidi appeared to post on the social platform X in support of legislation Tuesday.
“I really appreciate the bipartisan efforts on advanced nuclear,” he wrote, alongside a video of a speech by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) in favor of the bill.
The nuclear package was combined with another bill reauthorizing the U.S. Fire Administration and firefighter grant programs, which will also go to the president’s desk.
“We benefit from more tools as we confront the climate crisis – with the urgency that the moment demands,” added Zaidi.
The legislation is expected to speed up the licensing timeline for new nuclear reactors and reduce the fees companies have to pay to do so.
It also requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to produce a report that considers ways to simplify and shorten the environmental review process.
“I hope it makes history in terms of small modular reactors, which is the future of nuclear power,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.) told reporters Tuesday before the vote.
Supporters of the project say it is a big deal for the country’s nuclear energy sector.
“It facilitates the process by which industry needs to obtain approvals to build these projects,” said Lesley Jantarasami, managing director of the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Jantarasami added that this will likely lead to the construction of more nuclear projects.
However, the legislation also has critics.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear energy safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, believes a provision altering the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s mission to prevent it from “unnecessarily” limiting nuclear energy will make the nation’s nuclear fleet less safe.
“I just see this as an invitation to the industry to challenge every decision the commission tries to make that has the potential to impose more than this minimum amount of regulation and could essentially paralyze it from actually working to improve nuclear safety and security.” , he said. The Hill this week.
The combined fire-nuclear package passed the House 393-13-1, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) voting present in support of the fire provisions but in protest of the nuclear ones.
“I voted present in opposition to the ridiculous decision to link the reauthorization of vital firefighting programs for our communities with poison pills that undermine nuclear safety and were strongly opposed by leading grassroots environmental organizations,” she told The Hill in a statement in writing.
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