A message from General Atomics
Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cladding: Innovative Materials Enhance Fleet Safety and Performance
The American Nuclear Society election is now open. Members can vote for the Society’s next vice president/president-elect and treasurer as well as six board members (four U.S. directors, one non-U.S. director, and one student director). Completed ballots must be submitted by 1:00 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
Merz
The conservative Christian Democratic Union came out on top in Germany’s February 23 election. CDU leader Friedrich Merz achieved a “lackluster win,” as the Associated Press termed it, but his party’s political agenda could mean a revival for nuclear energy in Germany.
The country shut down its final nuclear reactor in 2023, in large part as a reaction to the 2011 accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Now many Germans are taking a renewed interest in clean, reliable nuclear power.
First, Merz and the CDU need to form a coalition to secure at least 316 votes in Parliament before he can be formally elected chancellor of Germany, the AP reports. Provisional results shared by Politico show that the CDU carried 28.5 percent of Sunday’s vote, trailed by the Alternative for Germany Party with 20.8 percent, the Social Democratic Party with 16.4 percent, and Alliance 90/the Greens with 11.6 percent.
Coons
Moran
The bipartisan Financing Our Futures Act, which expands certain financing tools to all types of energy resources and infrastructure projects, was reintroduced to the U.S. Senate on February 20 by Sens. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) and Chris Coons (D., Del.).
Via amendment to the Internal Revenue Code, the legislation would allow advanced nuclear energy projects to form as master limited partnerships (MLPs), a tax structure currently available only to traditional energy projects.
An MLP is a business structure that is taxed as a partnership but the ownership interests of which are traded like corporate stock on a market. Until the Internal Revenue Code is amended, MLPs will continue to be available only to investors in energy portfolios for oil, natural gas, coal extraction, and pipeline projects that derive at least 90 percent of their income from these sources. This change would take effect on January 1, 2026.
A new council within the president’s executive circle aims to advise Trump on strategies to “achieve energy dominance,” ultimately by boosting domestic energy production.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is looking for feedback on its proposed rule for fees for fiscal year 2025. The proposal was published in the February 19 Federal Register. The federal government's fiscal year is the 12-month period from October 1 to September 30.
The proposed rule includes instructions on how to submit written comments to the NRC. Comments will be accepted through March 21, 2025.
The American Nuclear Society has opened applications for the Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship. Congressional Fellows can directly contribute to the federal policymaking process, working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee. They will be responsible for supplying Congress with their expertise in nuclear science and technology, having a hand in the creation of new laws while gaining a deeper understanding of the legislative process.
ANS strongly encourages interested members to apply. Application instructions can be found here.
Texas lawmakers are considering legislative action this session on recommendations made last November by the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group.
Senate Bill 1105 calls for the establishment of a state-run advanced nuclear energy authority, a state permitting office, and an advanced nuclear innovation fund. Republican state Sen. Tan Parker introduced the bill.
Nuclear footprint: Texas currently has two large nuclear plants—Commanche Peak and South Texas Project—comprising four reactors that supplied nearly 10 percent of the state’s power last year.
Small modular reactors are also planned in Texas. Dow Chemical and X-energy are targeting a cluster of SMRs to support Dow’s manufacturing site in Seadrift on the Gulf Coast. At Abeline Christian University, about 200 miles west of Dallas, Natura Resources plans to install a test reactor using molten-salt cooling.
A joint resolution under consideration in the Wisconsin legislature aims to declare and promote the state’s support for nuclear power and willingness to deploy additional sources.
Energy secretary Chris Wright outlined his priorities and plans this week, including a focus on modernizing nuclear power and “taking the politics out” of energy discussions, especially as they relate to climate change.
Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org
Dear Secretary Wright:
On behalf of the U.S. nuclear professional community, I offer our sincere congratulations to you on your becoming the secretary of energy.
By now, I’m sure you have figured out that “Department of Energy” is a misnomer. If the Department of Government Efficiency ever requires truth in advertising, the DOE should be renamed the “Department of Nuclear Weapons, Security, Cleanup, and Sundry Energy and Science Programs.” That’s because more than 60 percent of the DOE’s budget is dedicated to “atomic energy defense activities”—making sure our nuclear bombs work, our aircraft carriers and submarines sail, and our Cold War messes get cleaned up.
Officials from the United States and the Republic of El Salvador signed a memorandum of understanding Monday, agreeing to cooperate on strategic civil nuclear development.
In one of his first acts in office, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio signed the MOU with El Salvadoran foreign minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco during his recent visit.
Nuclear Newswire has learned that the Trump administration last week requested that all members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board resign, except for the board’s chair, Peter Swift.
The ANS Public Policy Committee (PPC), represented by PPC chair Bradley Williams, approached the Board of Directors at the Winter Conference in November in Orlando with a request to approve a revision to Position Statement #12 regarding fusion energy.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a new mission statement to formalize the agency’s pledge to “be a part of the solution” in bringing new nuclear energy projects to life across the country.
Progress continues for TerraPower’s Natrium plant, with the latest win coming in the form of a state permit for construction of nonnuclear portions of the advanced reactor.
Advanced nuclear reactor company Last Energy joined with two Republican state attorneys general in a lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, arguing that some microreactors should not require the commission’s approval.
DeWine
State legislation that designates nuclear power as “green energy” and expands oil/natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) leases on state land was forwarded this week to the desk of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The Republican governor has 10 days after receiving House Bill 308 to either sign it into law or veto it. A “green” designation would imply state recognition that nuclear energy causes no harm to the natural environment.
Pro arguments: In its coverage of the bill, Spectrum News quoted Greg Lawson, a research fellow at the Buckeye Institute, as defending nuclear energy. “Nuclear energy is zero carbon emission, and from that standpoint, it certainly addresses a lot of the concerns that folks have when they’re concerned about what happens to the climate. . . . Right now, Ohio is facing a real challenge. We’ve got a lot of data centers coming into Ohio. This is a massive issue. These things consume just incredible amounts of electricity,” Lawson said.
David Wright
There is a modern-day parable that NRC commissioner David Wright likes to reflect on from time to time, the story of a janitor on a mission. On a visit to NASA in the 1960s, or so the story goes, amid all the action and excitement and VIPs, President Kennedy stopped a janitor who was pushing his broom down the hallway. Kennedy asked the man what he was doing and he said, “Well, I’m putting a man on the moon.”
Wright believes people—all the people—are how jobs get done. And the people of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have a very big job ahead of them. Whether it is meeting the requirements of the ADVANCE Act, bringing 10 CFR Part 53 closer to the finish line, or working with its counterparts in other countries toward climate goals and international agreements, the NRC is moving mountains, one sweep of the broom at a time.
Comments on the rule are being accepted until February 28
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will host two public meetings in early January to educate and field questions about a proposed rule to allow more flexibility in licensing nuclear plants.