New Millennium Nuclear Energy Partnership Releases Report on Strategy for the Future of Nuclear Energy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The New Millennium Nuclear Partnership, co-chaired by Third Way has unveiled the first post-Fukushima strategy for the long-term maintenance and expansion of American civilian nuclear energy. The product of more than a year of collaboration from industry, environmental, government, academic, innovation, and financial leaders, provides a roadmap for the private sector and government to work together to help the United States realize the clean energy benefits provided by nuclear power. This consensus strategy urges Congress, the President, and industry to implement a series of concrete recommendations on how to extend the lives of existing nuclear plants, build new plants, and develop and deploy the next generation of nuclear technology.

Senator Tom Carper of Delaware who has played an influential role in crafting comprehensive energy and climate legislation said: “Finding common sense solutions to our energy needs is an area where the federal government can play an important leadership role—one that transcends party lines. A renewed nuclear energy industry in this country means clean energy into the future and opportunities for American economic growth, with the potential to create thousands of good-paying American jobs. Over the years, my colleagues and I on the Environment and Public Works Committee have worked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear industry to ensure that we have a ‘culture of safety’ at every one of our U.S. nuclear energy reactors, and we continue to make sure every precaution is being taken to safeguard the American people from a nuclear incident. At the same time, we have worked to expand opportunities for nuclear power’s continued growth and success in our nation. Fortunately, we’re beginning to see the fruits of our labor with the recent NRC license approvals to construct four new nuclear reactors—the first in more than 30 years. Today’s follow-up report to the New Millennium Nuclear Energy Summit—in which I co-chaired with my friend Senator Voinovich—gives us an important road map to help us build on this momentum and provide guidance on how government and industry can work together to lower the obstacles to nuclear energy’s future in a budget-constrained world. I thank Third Way and the Idaho National Laboratory for its diligence and hard work on this plan toward a better, stronger nuclear energy future.”

Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a leading proponent of nuclear energy in the Senate, said: "This Partnership has been working on this for almost 2 years, and any report from such a respected group examining the future of nuclear power in our country deserves serious consideration.”

Matt Bennett, Senior Vice President of Third Way added: “When private sector and government leaders get together and agree on a path forward, policymakers notice. This report marks one of those too rare times in Washington where there is agreement on that path. While it’s no secret nuclear energy has struggled in the face of record-low natural gas prices and Fukushima, we still need it to provide a hedge against volatile fuel prices, reduce pollution, and maintain our global leadership on nuclear safety in markets like India and China. This report helps accomplish that.”

The broad outline of the Partnership’s strategy was defined during a summit held in December 2010, which was co-hosted and moderated by Third Way, chaired by U.S. Senators Tom Carper (DE) and George Voinovich (OH), and attended by Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu, the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Carol Browner, then-Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, and several Members of Congress, and senior industry and public policy leaders. Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) succeeded Sen. Voinovich as an honorary co-chair of the partnership upon Sen. Voinovich’s retirement in 2011.

The key recommendations from the report include:
• Establish a path to a sustainable national energy policy through implementing a full interagency Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) and establishing a statutory entity focused solely on energy policy implementation (via the QER) and regulatory improvement.
• Ensure sustained safe and reliable operation of existing nuclear power plants via collaborative activities and shared funding of the nuclear industry and Congress.
• Develop a model for public-private partnerships that provides mechanisms for sharing risks and costs where national interests are at stake.
• Reduce financial risks for first movers contemplating new nuclear energy facilities though government commitments to loan guarantees, production tax credits and other incentives.
• Make the Government an advocate for U.S. energy infrastructure to make U.S. based companies more competitive internationally by enabling development and reducing barriers.
• Encourage new technology development (e.g., reactor and fuel cycle technology) to realize the safety, security and economic benefits by continued funding of long term research & development and enabling regulatory accommodation of new technologies.

Third Way is a think tank that answers America’s challenges with modern ideas aimed at the center. We advocate for private-sector economic growth, a tough and smart centrist security strategy, a clean energy revolution, and progress on divisive social issues, all through a moderate-led U.S. politics.

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