§16278 Enabling Nuclear Energy Innovation

Summary

The Energy Department must run a program to help test and show new kinds of nuclear reactors that private companies can propose and pay for. The Energy Secretary must use help from federal agencies and the National Laboratories to speed up building and running privately funded experimental reactors at National Laboratories or other Department-owned sites. These reactors must be used to check that designs work, answer technical questions about safety, resilience, security, and function, and do general research to improve early-stage technologies. The Secretary can make an agreement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair to share know-how, run a shared data system, test energy systems, use NRC safety expertise, and let NRC staff watch and learn. The Energy Secretary and the NRC chair must also agree on making sure both agencies have the technical skills and facility access they need, and on using computer models to study reactor behavior. Not later than 180 days after September 28, 2018, the Secretary had to give Congress a report on DOE’s ability to host and oversee these privately funded experimental reactors. That report must cover safety review, regulation options, possible sites, partnership contracts, federal liability for waste, effects on waste inventory, likely costs like security and decommissioning, and other issues, and must be updated every 2 years. No one may build or operate a reactor for commercial testing without an NRC license (section 5842), and activities with public liability must follow the Price‑Anderson Act (section 2210).