A nuclear energy imperative: US technical leadership must continue 

For more than 70 years, the United States has led the world in nuclear energy development and deployment. It is crucial our leadership continues. The U.S. created the technology, standards, and priorities that govern civilian nuclear energy development and use, and we cannot afford to rest on our laurels as our adversaries attempt to surpass us.  

Unfortunately, U.S. development and export of civilian nuclear energy technology has diminished while Russia and China push forward. If the U.S. does not step up to be the nuclear energy supplier to the world, other nations seeking advanced nuclear technologies for clean energy will look elsewhere. We cannot allow Russia and China to be that source.  

Exporting a nuclear reactor is not a single transaction, it is the beginning of a 100-year relationship. Countries that lead in production and export will set the world’s safety and nonproliferation standards, gaining a strategic presence that lasts for many years to come. As the longtime world leader in nuclear energy, the U.S. exported our technologies, our standards and our priorities to the world. We set global safety and nonproliferation standards and established lasting partnerships with nations across the world.  

As the world replaces aging U.S. nuclear reactors, it creates an opening China and Russia are trying to exploit. Their growing presence threatens our ability to set these safety standards, which means we must act now. Adversarial regimes cannot set the terms, and we cannot allow U.S. leadership to erode. 

Fortunately, there is good news: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is the nation’s nuclear energy research and development center, and its work will empower America to write a new chapter of nuclear energy development and deployment. In fact, INL’s reach spans much farther than the U.S. with virtually every nuclear reactor in existence tracing its DNA to research conducted at the lab. INL is not just the birthplace of nuclear energy, but many decades later, it has the capacity to develop and test nuclear technologies in a superior fashion our adversaries cannot match. We are proud to say that the work being conducted in Idaho is central to our domestic and global nuclear energy strategy.  

Today, just as we did in the past, the U.S. must take the next step. In the coming years, INL will demonstrate several new advanced reactor technologies, proving once again our nation can set the world standard for production of this safe, secure and clean energy source. We need to build and deploy these advanced nuclear technologies as soon as possible. We need them not only to provide stability and security to our power grid, but also to help produce clean hydrogen and power clean industrial, manufacturing and transportation systems. 

Congress is essential to our success and must step up to strengthen our export strategy, secure the nuclear fuel supply chain and support a nuclear regulatory environment that will allow U.S. industry to compete with our adversaries in real time. Working with colleagues in the Senate, I — Sen. Risch — have introduced legislation to get this started.  

For the good of our nation and the world, we must create another nuclear power renaissance allowing future generations to inherit a world that is prosperous, clean, safe, resilient and secure. Ensuring that civilian nuclear energy infrastructure is developed and built is crucial to powering America’s economy, producing clean energy and strengthening our national security. The United States can and must lead on nuclear energy research and development, and INL is the engine that will get us there.  

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and serves on the Senate Committees on Energy and Natural Resources, Intelligence, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Ethics. He has represented the state of Idaho in the U.S. Senate since 2009. John Wagner is Idaho National Lab director. Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.