A Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee will continue Congress’s push to pare back regulations on the nuclear industry this week, considering legislation that would ease red tape on advanced reactors and uranium enrichment facilities.
Senators will discuss three pieces of legislation that appear to build on the ADVANCE Act, a bipartisan law signed in 2024 that streamlined regulations for new nuclear reactors that industry boosters argued had been slowed by a cumbersome Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process.
“This subcommittee hearing gives Congress the opportunity to move the ball forward on practical legislation — from modernizing enrichment licensing to allowing local workers in nuclear construction — that will lower costs, reduce red tape and set this industry up for future success,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Innovation and Safety.
The “Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act” — from Lummis and subcommittee ranking member Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) — appears to offer a relatively bipartisan adjustment to NRC rules aimed at reducing the cost overruns and delays that have plagued projects for decades.
