The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by speeding permitting and creating new incentives for advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
A version of the bill had already passed in the House of Representatives and it will now go to President Joe Biden for a signature to become law. It passed the Senate 88-2 votes. “Today, we sent the ADVANCE Act to the president’s desk because Congress worked together to recognize the importance of nuclear energy to America’s future and got the job done,” said Republican Shelley Moore Capito, a ranking member of the committee.
The bill could benefit companies like Bill Gates-backed TerraPower, which is trying to build a $4 billion Natrium reactor in Wyoming on the site of an old coal plant but is struggling to secure a key permit.