The coronavirus pandemic has prompted a much-needed conversation about American manufacturing and the role it plays in preserving American leadership in the world. As we reevaluate our supply chains and identify critical sectors of the economy, it is important that we include the American nuclear energy industry in the discussion.
For too long, we have allowed our nuclear industry to fall behind its foreign competitors, ceding valuable market share to potential adversaries and risking the long-term health of our energy sector supply chains.
Nuclear power accounts for 20% of our nation’s energy production and 55% of all carbon-free energy in the United States. While our country relies heavily on nuclear power, and must continue to do so if we are ever to curb carbon emissions, we have not made the health of our nuclear industry a priority. There are 98 nuclear reactors currently operating in the U.S., and while the average one is about 38 years old, there are only two new reactors currently under construction.
By making it more and more difficult for our companies to build reactors at home, we have made it even more challenging for them to compete abroad, where they face stiff competition from foreign nuclear industries that are often state-owned, such as China’s, which is entirely under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. Moreover, this stagnation is slowly eroding our nuclear supply chain, which, in the long run, could leave our existing nuclear fleet dependent on foreign suppliers.
China has 12 nuclear reactors currently under construction. The Xi regime’s five-year energy plan outlines ambitious targets for its nuclear sector. According to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “China added the most nuclear power capacity in the world during the last decade, strongly aided by government promotion of nuclear power.”
Moreover, China has been angling to become a global leader in nuclear energy. According to the same report, “In an effort to propel China’s rise in the global nuclear marketplace, Chinese firms are pursuing a number of nuclear power projects around the world, including in Argentina, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.” China knows that dominance in the nuclear sector will position it as a major power player in the 21st century. By using its nuclear industry as a tool of statecraft, the CCP is fostering foreign dependence on an industry that it controls.
Fortunately, President Trump has taken action to revitalize the American nuclear industry and curb the influence of China in the international nuclear marketplace. In a report released late last month titled the Strategy to Restore American Nuclear Energy Leadership, the Nuclear Fuel Working Group (established by Trump) recommended that the U.S. take “a whole-of-government approach to supporting the U.S. nuclear energy industry in exporting civil nuclear technology in competition with state-owned enterprises.”
The report also recommended that the U.S. invest in research and development “to consolidate technical advances and strengthen American leadership in the next generation of nuclear energy technologies.” Much of the innovation and development in this area has been taking place at the birthplace of the Manhattan Project, in my home district in Tennessee.
At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, some of the brightest minds are working to find ways to make nuclear reactors even safer, more efficient, and faster to develop and deploy. For example, the Transformational Challenge Reactor project aims to revolutionize the deployment of nuclear power systems through the construction and operation of a 3D-printed reactor, which would significantly lower the cost of building new reactors.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory also conducts extensive research into nuclear fuels to support the deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems, which are an essential component of the White House’s strategy to restore American leadership in the global nuclear market. In addition, the lab also recently signed an agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority to cooperate on advanced reactor technologies, helping pave the way for the deployment of a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors. If the U.S. is to regain its place as a leader in the global energy market place, we must expand our support of projects that are pioneering work into nuclear energy like these.
In addition to strong support from the Trump administration, nuclear energy has broad bipartisan support in Congress. As the COVID-19 crisis has shown us, we cannot afford to let vital economic sectors and supply chains be held by foreign actors, especially regimes like China’s, which are hostile to our national interests. It is imperative for our nation’s security that we revitalize our nuclear energy sector so that we can regain our position as the world leader in nuclear energy.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican, represents Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
