① On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed the “Atomic Energy Progress Act”, which places nuclear fusion and nuclear fission in different regulatory systems; ② this move means that nuclear fusion technology will get rid of the many restrictions faced by fission projects, go into battle lightly and advance rapidly; ③ the nuclear fusion industry is very satisfied with this, and it is said that this move will help the US become a global leader in commercial fusion technology.
Financial Services Association, March 1 (Editor: Malan) America's Green New Deal has reached its fifth year, but under actual pressure, the US two parties have had to re-examine the various restrictions on green energy and continue to emphasize the importance of nuclear energy.
On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed an “Atomic Energy Progress Act”, which will amend the “Atomic Energy Act” passed in 1954 to define a new nuclear fusion device as a particle accelerator, thereby incorporating nuclear fusion into the regulatory framework for particle accelerators and promoting the implementation of a separate supervisory system for nuclear fusion and nuclear fission.
From an operational perspective, this legislation streamlines the federal licensing process for nuclear fusion development, including providing timely reviews, reducing costs for nuclear developers, and modernizing environmental reviews, and will greatly promote the development of nuclear energy in the United States.
Senator Jeff Duncan, the bill's drafter, said in a statement after the vote that nuclear power provides the US with reliable and affordable clean energy, and that the independence of the two technology routes will ensure America's electricity supply and secure America's national security through energy.
Another drafter, Diana DeGette, added that dealing with the climate crisis means people must make all clean energy more modern, including nuclear. The Nuclear Advancement Act has undergone important updates to improve energy security and move the United States closer to a carbon-free future.
A global leader
The significance of regulating nuclear fission separately from nuclear fusion is significant. This represents some provisions for fission reactors. If funding is required to pay nuclear fusion claims, they will not occur in the field of fusion. However, the nuclear fusion reactor core will actually not melt.
Furthermore, compared to fission reactors that produce huge amounts of energy and are also associated with nuclear waste that has been harmful for thousands of years, nuclear fusion does not generate long-lasting radioactive waste, and theoretically can generate almost unlimited amounts of energy. As a result, nuclear fusion is a cutting-edge field that the international community has been trying to break through in recent years.
America's private fusion companies have raised billions of dollars to commercialize and scale up nuclear fusion. And the US government's revision of nuclear regulations at this time is undoubtedly a major victory for companies in this field.
Previously, according to the nuclear fission approval process, nuclear power projects usually faced licensing reviews that took several years and were expensive. Since the 1990s, only two new reactors have been put into operation in the US.
Fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems said earlier that regulating fission and fusion separately would make the United States a global leader in commercial nuclear fusion.