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Despite deep budget cuts, Trump administration says it supports advanced nuclear

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Despite deep budget cuts, Trump administration says it supports advanced nuclear

President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts for advanced nuclear energy have caught the attention of developers and detractors alike as the U.S. Department of Energy is requiring the private sector to take the lead in funding research and development.

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The U.S. Department of Energy's Suzanne Jaworowski at Third Way's advanced nuclear conference March 6 in Washington, D.C.

Source: Third Way

During an annual advanced nuclear conference March 6 in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the centrist think tank Third Way, the Trump administration took the stage to defend its proposed $259 million cut for the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy to an overall budget of $757 million, with $54 million of the budget allocated for advanced small modular reactor research and development activities.

"The U.S. Department of Energy is fully engaged and support[ive]," Suzanne Jaworowski, the chief of staff for the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, said during the conference. "But that doesn't mean that we'll just be passing out checks."

"Our philosophy is that industry leads and then we support it in the background and help facilitate their success," said Jaworowski. The former Trump campaign staffer and coal company spokesperson also stressed the contrasting views of the budget cuts held by those within the Washington, D.C., beltway and those of the rest of the country.

Jaworowski said she found it "interesting" that the people building the next generation of reactors are not the ones expressing worry over the DOE budget. Instead, she said the developers appreciate the support they receive from the DOE.

Among the projects the DOE supports is NuScale Power LLC's 600-MW UAMPS Carbon Free Power Project that is proposed to be built at the Idaho National Laboratory. Consisting of a dozen 50-MW passively cooled and "walkaway safe" small modular reactors — those that need no human intervention if they overheat — the project's factory-built design certification is under review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Idaho small modular reactor project is supported with $217 million in matching funds from the DOE in addition to more than $300 million already invested by Fluor Corp. subsidiary NuScale and anticipated nuclear production tax credits from the federal government. The developer expects an additional $600 million will be needed before construction can begin in late 2021. The first reactor has a projected in-service date of 2026.

"We're open for business. Come build reactors" at the Idaho National Laboratory, INL director Mark Peters told the conference. "We've got plenty of space."

However, some are opposing the budget cuts the Trump administration is pursuing. Trump's first proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 sought to scrap funding for the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, program, which helps support the development of "walkaway safe" reactors. The president also wanted to withhold $91 million in funding for R&D loan programs, but the U.S. Government Accountability Office subsequently determined that doing so violated the law. Congress ultimately saved both programs, at least temporarily, in a spending bill that was signed into law in May 2017.

But Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal envisions further cuts, including eliminating the DOE's Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program, which supports cleaner energy technologies such as two reactors that are under construction at the Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia. The president further proposed to end funding for the ARPA-E program.

"This [latest DOE budget] proposal does nothing to improve a rather dire situation," University of California-San Diego researcher Ahmed Abdulla said in an email. Abdulla co-authored a recent study that concluded that not only did the DOE poorly dispense the $2 billion it spent on advanced nuclear research from 1998 to 2015, but the funding levels were not enough to help get even one new technology ready for deployment. According to the report, the advanced nuclear R&D funds varied annually between $0 and $240 million and only amounted on average to 15% of the money appropriated to the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy.

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Concept art on display: A high-temperature advanced reactor supplying power and heat to a processing plant.

Source: Third Way; Gensler

France-based independent nuclear consultant Mycle Schneider noted the contrast in the Trump administration's words of support for new nuclear technologies and its extensive budget cuts to programs that support developing those technologies. "It is difficult to detect any rational policymaking behind the DOE budget proposals," Schneider said in an email. He further suggested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's $10 million request to craft a regulatory framework for advanced reactors is inadequate, calling it "just enough not to publicly admit that nobody in the administration believes" that the technologies have any future.

While the pro-renewable Natural Resources Defense Council generally does not find itself aligned with nuclear interests, a representative of the group nevertheless expressed sympathy with the advanced nuclear industry.

"There is a clear pattern," Elizabeth Noll, deputy director for the NRDC, said during the Third Way conference, referring to Trump's proposal to cut funding for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 65%. "The best way we, as a community, can push back against this is a clear directed message that rising tides for our energy R&D lifts all boats."