§18751 Infrastructure Planning for Micro and Small Modular Nuclear Reactors

Summary

The Secretary must send a report within 180 days after November 15, 2021 to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and on Science, Space, and Technology. The report must explain how micro-reactors and small modular reactors can make energy more reliable and cut carbon emissions for Department facilities. Key defined terms: advanced nuclear reactor — defined elsewhere in law; isolated community — defined elsewhere in law; micro-reactor — an advanced reactor of not greater than 50 megawatts electric; National Laboratory — defined elsewhere in law; small modular reactor — an advanced reactor with less than 300 electrical megawatts that can be built with similar units at one site. The report must evaluate current resilience and carbon rules for Department facilities and whether changes are needed to ensure at least 3 days of uninterrupted power during grid failures, protection against cyber attacks and electromagnetic pulses, and resilience to extreme natural events (for example earthquakes, volcanic activity, tornados, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, lahars, landslides, seiches, large snowfall, and very low or high temperatures). It must include the Department’s strategy to use nuclear power for resilience and carbon goals, plans to work with industry to deploy reactors to remote communities to replace diesel and other fossil fuels, an assessment of the value of switching to or co-locating reactors to provide backup power during outages, and deployment plans to put a micro-reactor and a small modular reactor at Department sites by 2026 and a small modular reactor by 2029. The Secretary must offer financial and technical help for feasibility studies to find sites in isolated communities, must do strong community outreach first, and must not give more than 50 percent of that assistance to National Laboratories.