Head of NEI lobby group says sector needs to be ‘hyper-focused’ on protecting crucial federal policies
The US nuclear industry has a future of unlimited potential as demand rises to meet the needs of manufacturing and artificial intelligence (AI), but it is also facing headwinds and the actions it takes today will “define what that future looks like”, the president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) lobby group has said.
In a “state of the industry” address at the Nuclear Energy Policy Forum in Washington, Maria Korsnick said demand from AI and data centres is bringing big tech to the nuclear table and private capital is pouring into nuclear.
But she said the industry needs to be “hyper-focused” on protecting federal policies and programmes that preserve and expand nuclear generation.
“I’m talking about programs like the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program and the Loan Programs Office, and policies like the nuclear tax credits,” Korsnick said.
She said the NEI recently joined more than 120 of its member companies to send a letter to congressional leadership, urging them to retain the credits.
She said before tax credits were introduced “we were prematurely shutting down nuclear plants”. But after those tax credits were passed, “we started to see power uprates, plant restarts, and decades-long reactor extensions”.
Korsnick said: “All of that progress, the technological boom it’s fuelling, the financial boon it’s fostering…all of that could slow down or turn around completely if Congress fails to preserve the nuclear credits.
“The current language we’ve seen from the House phases out much-needed support. But we are not giving up. And we will be out there pounding the pavement every step of the way.”
The US nuclear industry is said to be intensifying its lobbying to save the credits, which it says are vital for meeting energy demand being fuelled by the development of AI and the need for data centres.
Lawmakers from the House ways and means committee, which is responsible for writing tax law, recently released draft legislation that would phase out nuclear energy subsidies starting in 2029, three years earlier than written in the Inflation Reduction Act, in a move that caught the sector by surprise.
According to the UK-based Financial Times (subscription required), lobbyists are racing to persuade lawmakers to rescind or moderate cuts to nuclear industry subsidies, which until recently had more bipartisan support than other low-carbon energy technologies such as wind and solar.
The Inflation Reduction Act was introduced by the Biden administration and became law in 2022.
Policies To Strengthen Nuclear ‘Essential’
Its aims included offering finance for struggling nuclear reactors in a bid to save reactors from being shut down early.
The legislation was welcomed by the US nuclear energy industry at the time as “sending a clear signal that nuclear is essential to the transition toward a carbon-free economy”.
Included in the legislation was a “zero-emission nuclear power production credit” that provides up to 0.3 cents per kWh for energy produced from a zero-emission nuclear power facility, starting in 2024 and ending in 2032.
Korsnick delivered her speech days before president Donald Trump signed four executive orders aimed at speeding up reactor approvals, boosting domestic uranium production and enrichment capacity, and accelerating deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.
Trump directed the government to fast-track construction of nuclear reactors and reform the “risk averse” culture of regulation in a bid to quadruple the US’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
Korsnick attended the signing ceremony at the White House. An NEI spokesman later said: “We appreciate the administration’s ongoing actions to preserve existing nuclear plants and usher in the deployment of next generation nuclear.
“Policies to strengthen nuclear are essential to bolstering our national security and meeting our energy goals.”
