Two Voices, Joint Priority: Appropriators Leading a Nuclear Renaissance

Washington, D.C. – Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has renewed its focus on American energy dominance. The House Appropriations Committee is advancing that commitment through enacted FY26 funding in the Energy and Water Development bill, led by Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), who has consistently emphasized the urgent need to revitalize the nation’s nuclear energy sector.

As the U.S. continues to strengthen its energy posture on the world stage, nuclear power remains a critical pillar. Chairman Fleischmann and Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID), who also serves on the Energy and Water Subcommittee, recently outlined these efforts in Washington Times opinion pieces, highlighting the Committee’s work to boost our nuclear capabilities, drive continued innovation, and enable U.S. leadership in the deployment of advanced reactor technologies.

As FY27 work gets underway, our members remain focused on building on this progress – advancing priorities and investments that strengthen domestic energy production, enhance security, and ensure long-term reliability.

Read Rep. Fleischmann's op-ed here and Rep. Simpson's op-ed here – or scroll below for the full text of both.

Nuclear cleanup enables a brighter nuclear future
Washington Times
By Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)

Nuclear energy was born as a peaceful consequence of the atomic bomb: the pinnacle of humanity’s destructive potential. In fact, the Atomic Age witnessed the birth of many incredible civil uses of the scientific discoveries and technological innovations resulting from the nuclear arms race. We take for granted that hospitals around the world depend on life-saving radioactive isotopes to treat cancer patients. Consumers worldwide enjoy safe food, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment thanks to radiation sterilization. Industries as diverse as oil and gas, mining, construction and manufacturing all use radioactive sources for critical processes.

To this day, our nuclear weapons program continues to produce peaceful uses that benefit all mankind. Recently, the first peaceful fusion reaction resulting in net energy gain was achieved at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) weapons lab, in an experiment meant for nuclear stockpile stewardship.

There is once again a renewed linkage from the Manhattan Project to the civil nuclear industry. New nuclear is booming on the very land that was used to build the nuclear weapons meant to deter and, if necessary, destroy the Soviet Union. When the Cold War ended, the United States no longer needed to operate its massive nuclear security enterprise producing hundreds of nuclear weapons a year that spanned sites across the country. Many of these sites from Hanford, Wash., to Savannah River, S.C., were dangerously contaminated with hazardous and radioactive waste after decades of sometimes haphazard wartime production of nuclear weapons.

The federal government has a moral obligation to remedy the affected local communities by cleaning up these legacy sites. Since 1989, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) and the incredible federal contractor industry have cleaned up 92 of the original 107 sites, returning the remediated land for new public use, natural conservation, economic development or national security missions.

For much of my tenure in Congress, I have been the co-chair of the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, which promotes awareness of our nuclear legacy and builds a stronger coalition to fight for the needs of our affected communities. For years, this bipartisan group of legislators from across the country have worked together to ensure the success of our nuclear cleanup missions. This is near and dear to my heart, as I represent the Manhattan Project secret city of Oak Ridge, Tenn. Oak Ridge is still home to a large DOE reservation that includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NNSA’s Y-12 National Security Site, and a substantial nuclear cleanup mission.

That cleanup mission in Oak Ridge is an excellent demonstration of how DOE-EM is at the forefront of unleashing American nuclear energy. Thousands of acres of remediated land that used to host massive nuclear weapons production facilities is now home to dozens of new and legacy nuclear industry companies. In just Oak Ridge today, Kairos and GE-Hitachi are building new reactors that will put electrons on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s grid, Orano and BWXT are building uranium enrichment plants, X-energy and Standard Nuclear are building fuel fabrication and production facilities, Oklo is building a nuclear recycling facility, Radiant is building a microreactor factory, and Centrus has a centrifuge factory. Oak Ridge is leading the way with this and more, but this phenomenon is being replicated across our legacy cleanup sites as the domestic nuclear industry is revitalized after decades of stagnation.

After many false dawns, we are finally experiencing the long-predicted revival of the American nuclear energy industry. For decades, the United States experienced flat energy usage, and so it made little sense to invest the huge, up-front capital costs necessary to build large nuclear power plants and the supporting services. Yet now we are witnessing a surge in demand for electricity, driven by the AI data center boom, post-pandemic reindustrialization and the increasing electrification of everyday life. While there is no shortage of justifications for building new nuclear power (it improves energy independence; it is carbon-free; it has the most efficient land to power output ratio of any energy source), it is the urgent demand for electricity that has fundamentally changed the economic calculus.

Titans of modern industry – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta – are investing massive sums into new reactor projects and power purchase agreements with the existing fleet. We are also seeing decommissioned nuclear plants get brought back online as companies and utilities desperately work to generate more power. As chairman of House Energy and Water Appropriations, I will continue working to ensure DOE has the resources to further the nuclear demonstration projects that are helping derisk the first-of-a-kind costs of new small modular reactors (SMR) and expand domestic enrichment capabilities.

Working together, government, industry, and academia are making this new nuclear future a reality. Abundant, affordable, clean, and reliable nuclear energy will be foundational to this new era of American energy dominance powering our shared prosperity, national security, and way of life for generations to come.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann is the Chairman of the Energy and Water Subcommittee of Appropriations and also serves on the Energy Subcommittee of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. As Chairman of Energy and Water, Fleischmann leads the charge to provide funding for the federal agencies and programs responsible for the United States’ national laboratories, water and energy infrastructure, nuclear security, and energy independence.

America's New Nuclear Era Starts in Idaho
Washington Times
By Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) 

America has finally decided to get serious about nuclear energy again.

President Donald Trump’s executive orders launching a nuclear energy emergency and directing federal agencies to dramatically accelerate advanced reactor deployment signal a turning point. After decades of hesitation, America is once again treating nuclear power as the strategic asset it has always been —  essential to energy security, economic strength and global leadership. We are at the beginning of a new nuclear era, and Idaho is at its center.

This moment has not emerged from executive orders alone. It is built on years of investment and legislative action that created the foundation for what we are now able to do. As a former chairman and current senior member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, I have had direct responsibility for funding the Department of Energy’s nuclear programs. Year after year, that meant fighting to protect and grow investments in nuclear research, development, and demonstration at a time when support was far from guaranteed.

As we enter what I refer to as a nuclear renaissance, largely thanks to support from the Trump administration, I’ve been able to secure several priorities for the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) during the past fiscal year. These priorities will enhance the Lab’s infrastructure and operations, provide funding for advanced reactor construction and demonstrations and support the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) Test Bed, which I discuss further below. Securing these priorities would not have been possible without the appropriations process.

The appropriations I fought for throughout the years restored critical federal investment in advanced reactor programs. Sustained funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy kept the science alive during the lean years. These victories required continuous effort, coalition building and an unwavering conviction that nuclear energy’s best days were still ahead. I believe they are.

Nowhere is that more evident than at Idaho National Laboratory, America’s one-of-a-kind nuclear energy laboratory. For more than 70 years, INL has been the heart of nuclear innovation. The Laboratory conducted the world’s first usable nuclear-generated electricity in 1951. It developed the reactors that power our Navy. It established the safety standards and testing protocols that underpin the entire commercial nuclear industry. Fifty-two reactors have operated on the desert plain east of Idaho Falls.

INL’s mission has never been more urgent. The Laboratory is now home to the most advanced nuclear research capabilities in the world, and it is deploying them in service of the national interest. One of the most significant examples is the DOME reactor test bed. DOME is the original containment structure from EBR-II, the Experimental Breeder Reactor that operated at INL for more than 30 years and pioneered the liquid metal fast reactor technology that influenced advanced reactor concepts still being developed today.

Not long ago, DOME was slated for demolition as part of INL’s legacy cleanup work. In a visionary decision, Department of Energy leadership made the call to save it. Repurposed as a modern microreactor test bed, DOME gives American developers the ability to take new reactor concepts from design to demonstration at the pace the new nuclear era demands. Retrofitting DOME for its new use completed just at the beginning of this month, and now this structure that nearly disappeared is one of the most strategically valuable test facilities in the world.

The stakes are high. China and Russia are aggressively exporting their reactor technology, financing nuclear plants across the developing world, and positioning themselves as the partners of choice for nations seeking to grow their energy capacity. The United States cannot cede that ground. The nations that build the world’s reactors write the rules for how nuclear technology is governed, operated, and safeguarded for generations.

America has the science, engineering talent, safety culture and institutions it takes to lead the nuclear energy sector. What we needed was the will and the investment to act. That investment has been made. Now, with the right policy environment and the full capabilities of Idaho National Laboratory engaged, America is ready to reclaim its place as the world’s premier nuclear energy nation.

The new nuclear era is here. And it starts in Idaho.

A lifelong Idahoan, Rep. Mike Simpson’s political career began in 1980 when he was elected to the Blackfoot City Council. In 1984, he was elected to the Idaho Legislature, serving until 1998, including the last six years as Speaker of the House. Mike was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998. He serves on three powerful House Appropriations Committee subcommittees, including as the Chair of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
 

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