Nuclear Energy is at Stake in Senate Reconciliation

The Future of Nuclear Hangs in the Balance

America invented nuclear energy. But we failed to support the technology at home and abroad and, as a result, lost valuable time to deploy this safe, reliable, carbon-free power source. Today, after years of advocacy work from Third Way and our allies and diligent bipartisan policy making, American nuclear energy is growing again, with new reactors on the way in communities across the US. Tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have all committed to using nuclear to meet surging energy demand from data centers. Domestic fuel supply chains are coming online.

The House GOP’s tax bill puts that progress at risk. 

As the Senate prepares its version of the tax package, a small group of Senate Republicans holds the fate of American nuclear energy in their hands. If they vote to pass the House tax package—and, by extension, to demolish tech-neutral clean energy tax credits and slash funding for other vital programs—these Republicans will be abandoning principles and policies they’ve spent years defending.

 That vote will have consequences: 

• Third Way finds that continued investment in small modular reactors (SMRs) alone could unlock more than $185 billion in economic opportunity, revenue that’s off the table for the US if the Senate GOP passes the House’s bill. 
• American energy demand is surging, driven in large part by new data center deployment. Prices are starting to tick up. Abandoning decades worth of support for nuclear energy robs Americans of critical, 24/7 power when they need it most, weakening the grid. 
• Nuclear exports expand US geopolitical influence and counter adversaries like Russia and China. Without a strong domestic nuclear industry, that advantage disappears. 

The stakes are high, and accountability for key Senate votes could not be more important. Below, we highlight a few Senators who’ve previously led the charge on US nuclear and whose voices are particularly important as negotiations unfold. 

Opportunities to Defend Nuclear: What Will They Do Now?

It’s time for the Senate Republicans who have long championed nuclear energy to put their votes where their pro-nuclear rhetoric is. 

The Senate must take explicit action to: 

• Safeguard the technology-neutral production and investment tax credits (45Y and 48E) to support the early commercial deployment of advanced nuclear reactors
• Allow credits to remain in place until at least 2033 before phase-out begins
• Allow projects to utilize the ‘beginning of construction’ as the benchmark date for qualifying rather than the date ‘placed in service’
• Allow transferability for the full duration of the tax credits
• Define clear and workable foreign entity of concern provisions that allow for nuclear deployment while promoting US security goals
• Protect staffing levels and funding for the Loan Programs Office
• Oppose regulatory overhauls that limit the effectiveness of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
• Allocate robust funding for the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy