U.S. government support for the nuclear renaissance has taken many forms over the past couple years. These include funding advanced reactor development, awards for increasing fuel production capacity, and speeding up licensing processes. The new year has continued the trend of passing federal legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support. A new Department of Energy (DOE) funding bill redirects billions of dollars to the Office of Nuclear Energy. It comes alongside announcements of a new effort to establish Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.
Billions More for the Office of Nuclear Energy
Similar to the passing of the ADVANCE Act in 2024, which aimed to accelerate the development and licensing of advanced reactor designs, January saw widespread bipartisan support in the House and Senate for funding the DOE with $49 billion. Notably, the funding redirects over $3 billion from other DOE offices to the Office of Nuclear Energy.
This money will be used to provide additional funding for projects under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is a cost-sharing initiative started years ago for developing next-generation reactors from companies including BWX Technologies (BWXT). The additional funding will also be used to fund the $800 million awarded to GE Vernova (GEV) and Holtec (private) for advancing their more traditional light-water small modular reactors.
State Competition for Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses
On Wednesday, the DOE issued a request for information (RFI) inviting states to express interest in hosting Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses. The federal government intends to partner with state governments on joint projects for hosting large campuses. Those would support activities across the entire nuclear fuel life cycle, from uranium mining through milling, conversion enrichment, and fuel fabrication.
The RFI also seeks proposals for sites that could host advanced reactor deployment, power generation, advanced manufacturing, and even co-location of data centers. Multiple states are already competing for the interests of the nuclear industry. These include Wyoming, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Idaho.
The DOE remarked that one of these campuses could attract $50 billion in capital investments from the private sector. That will likely create significant interest in hosting one of the campuses. With the added potential of hosting reactors that could provide power to the local grids, the campuses could also be a source of significant ongoing revenue for the states and their localities.
BWXT and GEV are constituents of the VettaFi Nuclear Renaissance Index (NUKZX). NUKZX is the underlying index for the Range Nuclear Renaissance Index ETF (NUKZ).
For investors interested in the global growth opportunity for nuclear power, NUKZX includes a diversified group of companies across the nuclear value chain. Constituents include construction and services like BWXT, as well as companies focused on fuel, advanced reactors, and utilities (read more).
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