Bipartisan Senate bill would boost small nukes

The leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee offered plans today to develop nuclear reactors that are smaller – and cheaper – than nuclear power plants the industry is currently seeking to build.
 
Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill that requires the Energy Department, in a cost-share program with private industry, to develop standardized designs for reactors of less than 300 megawatts.
 
The program would also help with the first-time licensing of the units through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Bingaman cast the bill as another step toward developing more carbon-free power generation, while Murkowski agreed and said the reactors could be especially helpful in her state.
 
“Small reactors could broaden the application of nuclear energy while also serving as a reliable low-carbon power source for remote and off-grid energy needs such as those in Alaska,” she said in a prepared statement. Murkowski also said the reactors could be used in countries with power grids that lack the capacity to integrate the amount of electricity from large plants.