Earlier this week, ANS opened the application process for the 2027 Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship, offering ANS members an opportunity to contribute directly to federal policymaking in Washington, D.C. Applications are due June 6.

Each year, the American Nuclear Society awards the Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship to two members. Those recipients then spend a year in Washington, D.C., contributing to the federal policymaking process by working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee.

It has been nearly six months since the 2025 Congressional Fellows provided their midterm updates on their time on the Hill. Now, as their fellowships draw to their close, Jacob Christensen and Mike Woosley are looking back on what they accomplished, what they learned, and much more.

Kasper

Hayes

The American Nuclear Society has officially selected two of its members to serve as its 2026 Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows. Alyssa Hayes and Benjamin Kasper will help the Society fulfill its strategic goal of enhancing nuclear policy by working in the halls of Congress, either in a congressional member’s personal office or with a committee, starting next January.

“The Congressional Fellowship program has put ANS in a unique position to provide significant technical assistance to Congress on nuclear science, energy, and technology, with great results,” said Congressional Fellowship Special Committee chair Harsh Desai, himself a former Congressional Fellow. “This once-in-a-lifetime professional development opportunity will allow them to learn the art of policymaking and potentially pursue it as part of their careers beyond the fellowship.”

Christensen

Woosley

Mike Woosley and Jacob Christensen, the 2025 recipients of the American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship, are now more than halfway through their stints on the Hill. Their fellowships will draw to a close in December.

To update the Society on what they have accomplished in Washington, D.C., so far, Woosley and Christensen recently gave Nuclear News a midterm update on which offices they ended up in and what they hope to do with their remaining time in the Capitol.

Burlison

Rep. Eric Burlison (R., Mo.), the chairman of the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, has announced a hearing on “The New Atomic Age: Advancing America’s Energy Future.”

The hearing will take place on Tuesday, July 22, at 1:00 pm (ET). Witnesses include Alex Epstein, president and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, and Joshua Smith, energy policy lead at the Abundance Institute.

Details: According to the chairman’s office, the hearing will explore recent developments in nuclear energy technology, the commercial viability of advanced reactors, supply chain challenges, and policy pathways for Congress to strengthen nuclear power in the United States.

Fedorchak

North Dakota’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican freshman Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak, has introduced the Baseload Reliability Protection Act.

The bill aims to “amend the Federal Power Act to prohibit retirements of baseload electric generating units in any area that is served by a Regional Transmission Organization or an Independent System Operator and that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation [NERC] categorizes as at elevated risk or high risk of electricity supply shortfalls, and for other purposes.”

A summary of the legislation is available on Fedorchak’s House website.

Amendments: The Baseload Reliability Protection Act would amend the Federal Power Act in the following ways:

Wright

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright testified before a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, on May 7, to answer questions about the DOE budget and priorities for fiscal year 2026.

Wright’s testimony: Wright said that the DOE was taking steps to accelerate innovation in commercial nuclear development. “In the past 100 days, DOE has issued two disbursements to support the reopening of Michigan’s Palisades nuclear energy plant. We allocated high-assay low-enriched uranium material to five U.S. advanced nuclear reactor developers to boost domestic reactor deployment.”

He added that it was imperative for the nation to strengthen its nuclear future and that he would take immediate action to accelerate the deployment of small modular reactors.

Dozens of Westinghouse employees and supply chain partners descended on Washington, D.C., last week to build legislative support for new nuclear projects.

Johnston

John Bennett Johnston Jr., a moderate-to-conservative Democrat who served four terms in the U.S. Senate (1972–1997) and often advocated for the energy and infrastructure interests of his home state of Louisiana, passed away on March 25 at the age of 92. Johnston was a strong supporter of Louisiana’s oil and natural gas sectors and nuclear energy expansion.

Johnston was born on June 10, 1932, in Shreveport, La. He left Shreveport to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and then Washington and Lee University in Virginia. He earned his juris doctorate in 1956 from Louisiana State University. From 1956 to 1959, he served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has recommended to the Department of Energy and Congress that they work together “to create a workable pathway to site, license, construct, and operate a geologic repository for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.”

Fleischmann

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann is all about energy—specifically nuclear energy.

On March 20, the GOP congressman from Tennessee joined the official launch of Atoms for Appalachia, the new report from the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center that studied opportunities for deploying advanced nuclear energy in the area to spur economic development.

The council hosted a series of Atoms for Appalachia (A4A) workshops in 2024 in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia in partnership with the Breakthrough Energy Foundation. The sessions explored workforce demand, partnership opportunities, and innovation happening across the nuclear industry.

Pronuclear coalition Nuclear Matters is asking people to help preserve nuclear power and support new technology by writing to members of Congress.

Legislative proposals focused on streamlining the U.S. nuclear energy export process have circulated on Capitol Hill for several years, notably aimed at establishing a single point of contact in the government to simplify global nuclear projects.

The most recently introduced International Nuclear Energy Act (INEA) proposal (S. 826) promotes engagement with partner nations to develop a civil nuclear export strategy and to offset China’s and Russia’s growing influence on international nuclear energy development.

The American Nuclear Society recently selected two of its members to serve as the 2025 Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows. The 2025 Congressional Fellows, Jacob Christensen and Mike Woosley, will help the Society fulfill its strategic goal of enhancing nuclear policy by working in the halls of Congress, either in a congressional member’s personal office or with a committee, when their fellowship term begins in January.

The Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship offers American Nuclear Society members a unique opportunity to directly support public policy. By supporting nuclear experts through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program, ANS provides a path for its members to help advance nuclear policy and ensure a brighter, nuclear-powered future.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its annual report to Congress for fiscal year 2023 on abnormal occurrences involving medical and industrial uses of radioactive material.

The report, which was announced by the NRC on May 3, is available on the NRC website.

A minibus appropriations bill—the second produced this month by Congress—emerged from conference negotiations yesterday with language that would extend the Price-Anderson Act—legislation first enacted in 1954 that makes it possible for nuclear power producers to seek insurance from the private marketplace. Today the House of Representatives voted 286–134 to approve the minibus package of six fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills, and the Senate is expected to vote today, too. By extending the Price-Anderson Act—now set to expire in 2025—Congress can support the current U.S. power reactor fleet and pave the way for new reactor deployments.

Statement from Craig Piercy, CEO and Executive Director of the American Nuclear Society, on the Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act:

New appropriations bills currently under review in the U.S. Congress include a significant funding boost for nuclear energy.

This week, ranking members of both the U.S. House and Senate released six fiscal year 2024 appropriations, including the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies bill that has nuclear energy funding for FY 2024.

Donalds

Fleischmann

Two U.S. representatives—Chuck Fleischmann (R., Tenn.) and Byron Donalds (R., Fla.)—have published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner that calls for the United States to seize “the current nuclear economic opportunity worldwide” and “once again be the world leader in nuclear power.” The congressmen emphasize that “it is in the best interest of the United States and the rest of the world for our country, instead of China and Russia, to be the preferred partner for embarking nuclear nations.”

Atoms for Peace: Fleischmann and Donalds argue that President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech in 1953 established the foundational principles for the domestic and global success of the U.S. civil nuclear energy industry—and they urge the nation to reclaim those principles now. They point to the numerous benefits of nuclear energy, ranging from economic development to desalination to sustainable fuel creation, and note that the “global market is ripe for nuclear technology.”