Balch and Bingham
Stan Blanton is a Managing Partner at Balch and Bingham.
The "Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act" is bipartisan legislation to provide a major boost to the future of nuclear energy in the United States and was signed into law in July. The new law is the culmination of years of work to build consensus on benefits of advanced nuclear reactors to our nation's electric grid, economy, and environment.
The ADVANCE Act facilitates U.S. nuclear energy leadership and supports development and deployment of new nuclear energy technologies. It does so, among others, by reducing regulatory costs for companies seeking to license advanced nuclear reactor technologies, requiring the NRC to develop a pathway for timely licensing of microreactors and nuclear facilities at brownfield and retired fossil-fuel energy generation sites, and directing the NRC to establish an accelerated licensing review process to site and construct reactors at existing nuclear sites.
There is much to unpack in the Act, so Public Utilities Fortnightly reached out to Balch & Bingham Managing Partner and Chair of the firm's Nuclear Energy Practice Stan Blanton. He explains what the ADVANCE Act does and why it is important to the energy and utilities industry.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: Important bipartisan legislation was passed recently and signed into law. What are the key takeaways on the impact of the ADVANCE Act?