Policy

Washington, D.C. — The American Nuclear Society (ANS) applauds the U.S. Senate's confirmation of Theodore “Ted” Garrish as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

“On behalf of over 11,000 professionals in the fields of nuclear science and technology, the American Nuclear Society congratulates Mr. Garrish on being confirmed by the Senate to once again lead the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy,” said ANS President H.M. "Hash" Hashemian.

President Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom this week for a state visit that promises to include the usual pomp and ceremony alongside the signing of a landmark new agreement on U.S.-U.K. nuclear collaboration.

Despite being home to just one nuclear power plant, the 1,756-MWe Calvert Cliffs, Maryland is among the top producers of nuclear power in the country relative to its total generated power.

This is an energy strategy that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently said he plans to expand on, in part through his recent signing of the state’s Next Generation Energy Act, H.B. 1035.

As work progresses on the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, which will progress through DOE authorization rather than Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing, three members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have sent a critical letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

The letter demands “information about the DOE and its employees’ dealings with the NRC and its staff” and expresses concern that DOE staff has “broken the firewall” between the departments.

About two years ago, on August 11, 2023, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker vetoed S.B. 76, a bill that would have lifted the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction. It was a reversal on his decidedly pronuclear stance; in 2021, he signed S.B. 2408, which supported Braidwood, Byron, and Dresden nuclear power plants with $694 million in state funding.

Hash Hashemian
president@ans.org

The 2025 ANS Annual Conference in Chicago was a powerful springboard to begin my term as president. With over 1,400 attendees, it was one of our most dynamic gatherings in recent memory—full of energy, ideas, and a shared commitment to advancing nuclear science and technology.

As we move forward, my focus is clear: to elevate the role of nuclear in environmental protection, national security, energy diversity, and grid stability. These priorities are not just strategic—they are essential to a cleaner, more resilient future.

The goals I laid out at the conclusion of the Board of Directors meeting in June are simple, but I am sure they will be effective in engaging our community.

One simple change to start is the move away from the term meetings—the American Nuclear Society now uses the term conferences to describe its two yearly flagship gatherings, to more appropriately reflect the more than 1,000 attendees that these events bring together.

The dust has settled: It’s been one month since President Trump signed H.R.1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, after a lengthy and contentious reconciliation process. As drafts of the bill evolved through committees, the House, and the Senate, the fate of federal support for nuclear energy projects was often obfuscated.

Caputo

Commissioner Annie Caputo is resigning from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to a statement sent out to staff on Tuesday morning. Her resignation comes one day after the U.S. Senate voted to reconfirm chair David Wright to the commission.

“The time has come for me to more fully focus on my family,” Caputo said in her statement, provided by NRC spokesperson Scott Burnell. “I believe the [Trump] administration’s recent executive orders and the bipartisan ADVANCE Act have given the agency a platform for change.”

I have been a North Carolinian for 62 years and involved in the state’s nuclear energy industry from my high school days to today. I have seen firsthand how North Carolina has flourished. This growth has been due to the state’s enterprising people and strong leaders. Clean, competitive, and always-on nuclear power has also played an important role.

The last time the American Nuclear Society Board of Directors approved a strategic plan was back in 2018 under the direction of past president Bob Coward. Realizing a lot has changed with both ANS and the wider nuclear community, the current Board of Directors decided it was time to give our strategic plan a fresh look. Following the November 2024 ANS Conference, the Board has undertaken a comprehensive strategic planning process to align the Society’s direction with the realities of the rapidly changing energy and technology landscape.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which currently has three serving commissioners and—according to recent media reports—a detailee from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is accelerating licensing timelines to meet the requirements of President Trump’s May 23 Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” and the ADVANCE Act. On top of that, the agency is preparing for an anticipated rush of applications while dealing with a reduced workforce.

With the signing of a memorandum of understanding between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan, a nuclear future for Malaysia is back on the table.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced it has amended regulations for the licensing, inspection, special projects, and annual fees it will charge applicants and licensees for fiscal year 2025.

Hanson

Since the president's inauguration in January, the Trump administration has been on course to make big changes at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to realize its goals of deregulation, energy dominance, and deployment of advanced reactors. Given the executive orders (EOs) and the work that the Department of Government Efficiency has done in cutting the federal workforce, it was a surprise that NRC commissioner Christopher Hanson was dismissed on Friday, according to a statement Hanson posted on his LinkedIn profile early Monday.

Hanson said in the post that President Trump terminated his position “without cause, contrary to existing law and long-standing precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointments.”

Washington, D.C. — The American Nuclear Society (ANS) issued the following statement:

"A competent, effective, and fully staffed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is essential to the rapid deployment of new reactors and advanced technologies. The arbitrary removal of commissioners without due cause creates regulatory uncertainty that threatens to delay America’s nuclear energy expansion."

The World Bank has reversed its longtime policy on nuclear power plants, deciding at its June 10 board meeting that it would begin funding new nuclear energy projects around the world. The multinational lending organization also decided that it would consider funding for life extensions of existing nuclear reactors. These policy changes were explained by World Bank President Ajay Banga in an email to organization employees.

Fedorchak

North Dakota’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican freshman Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak, has introduced the Baseload Reliability Protection Act.

The bill aims to “amend the Federal Power Act to prohibit retirements of baseload electric generating units in any area that is served by a Regional Transmission Organization or an Independent System Operator and that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation [NERC] categorizes as at elevated risk or high risk of electricity supply shortfalls, and for other purposes.”

A summary of the legislation is available on Fedorchak’s House website.

Amendments: The Baseload Reliability Protection Act would amend the Federal Power Act in the following ways:

In the weeks since President Donald Trump issued four nuclear energy–-focused executive orders (EOs), stakeholders across the nuclear industry weighed in on the plans and details. The American Nuclear Society convened an expert advisory group to study the directives and provide constructive input for the pending implementation.

On May 23, President Donald Trump signed four Executive Orders (EOs) designed to “usher in a nuclear energy renaissance” by building on federal policies and programs and directing efficiencies in the licensing, siting, development, and deployment of advanced reactor technologies.

In order to evaluate the specific proposals contained in the EOs, a group of experts was convened from various sectors of the U.S. nuclear technology enterprise, under the auspices of the ANS External Affairs Committee, to compare the EOs against existing ANS board-approved Position Statements and to offer constructive input for subsequent implementation by the Trump administration.

The group’s findings and feedback, which were delivered by ANS CEO Craig Piercy to ANS President Lisa Marshall and the Board of Directors, are listed below, grouped by individual EO.

A group of nine former commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a letter Wednesday to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, lending their support to efforts to remove mandatory hearings from the reactor licensing process. The move could speed up the new reactor licensing process by about three to six months and save millions of dollars.