Republican Senators Mike Lee and Jim Risch, joined by Democracts Chris Coons and Martin Heinrich unveiled the International Nuclear Energy Act, which would establish a coordinated national strategy for nuclear exports.
The bill would also create financing mechanisms and international partnerships to support US nuclear technology abroad.
In a rare sign of policy continuity across administrations, President Trump has called for nuclear energy expansion, alongside coal, to address the National Energy Emergency he declared on his first day in office. Prior to leaving office, President Biden signed off on plans to triple the US’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
With nuclear plans ramping up, the bipartisan bill would establish a program to enhance safeguards and nuclear governance necessary for a civil nuclear program. It would also mandate a cabinet-level biennial summit on safety between the private sector and the government.
A Strategic Infrastructure Fund Working Group would also be established to determine how to best structure a Fund to finance nuclear projects critical to national security.
Alongside boosting the country’s domestic nuclear energy industry, lawmakers said the International Nuclear Energy Act would help “offset China and Russia’s growing influence on international nuclear energy development”.
“With the International Nuclear Energy Act, we’re not asking for a seat at the table—we’re setting the agenda on global nuclear development,” said Senator Lee. “Achieving American energy dominance will require us to streamline our nuclear exports, foster our relationships abroad, and bring the full weight of American industry to bear in out-competing our geopolitical adversaries.”
Senator Risch said: “If the US. doesn’t lead on nuclear energy development, Russia and China will.
“This bill will give us the tools we need to compete with these authoritarian aggressors and build long-lasting nuclear energy deals that benefit our economy and ensure America remains the leader on nuclear energy for generations to come.”
Ed McGinnis, former Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the DOE and current president and CEO of nuclear energy firm Curio, said: “With a bipartisan effort on the table, there’s an opportunity to not just revisit but truly revolutionise America’s approach to nuclear energy, particularly by closing the nuclear fuel cycle.”
Amazon pushes for more nuclear power to meet AI energy needs
As the world looks for cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels, nuclear is increasingly becoming a viable option as a source of long-term, sustainable power.
Hyperscaler giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have all sought to source nuclear energy to power their growing empires of data centres.
Earlier this week, Matt Garman, chief executive of AWS, called for more investment in nuclear to support the intense energy demands of technologies like AI.
Garman told the BBC that nuclear was a “great solution” to digital infrastructure energy demands, adding: “I think the world is going to have to build new technologies. I believe nuclear is a big part of that, particularly as we look 10 years out.”
Amazon signed deals to purchase Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) with Energy Northwest, X-energy, and Dominion Energy last October to provide power for several of its US data centres and its headquarters sites in Seattle and Virginia.
The cloud giant was one of several tech firms that pledged to help triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, joining the likes of Meta and Google.
Seamus Dunne, managing director for UK&IE at data centre provider Digital Realty, said the exponential demand for compute from AI requires a long-term, resilient energy strategy.
“For the UK to stay competitive in the global digital economy, we need a stable, scalable, and low-carbon energy mix to support the next generation of data infrastructure,” Dunne said.
“With demand already outpacing supply, and the UK aiming to establish itself as an AI powerhouse, it’s vital we stay open to a range of solutions. That also means building public trust and working with government to ensure the grid can keep pace.”
David Knox, global director of energy and sustainability at Colt DCS, said: “The primary obstacle to the growth and investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure is the inadequacy of the power grid required for energy transmission and distribution.
“AWS suggesting smaller nuclear reactors being added as a new source of zero carbon energy shows the scale of power needed to support the future development of specialist AI data centres, but the UK’s grid upgrade programmes are simply not moving quickly enough, to distribute this power to where it will be needed.”
Source: Capacity Media
