"NRC staff claim they have met the mandate given to them by Congress. But the sheer length of the proposed regulations alone demonstrates this is not the case. The draft framework is twice as long as either of the legacy, prescriptive licensing frameworks, Part 50 and 52, that it is intended to supplant. That is because the staff largely cut and pasted the old rules into the new framework, then added further burdensome regulations, including qualitative health objectives that cannot be complied with and expanded requirements for the notorious 'As Low As Reasonably Achievable' radiation standard, a further invitation to endlessly ratchet regulatory requirements. These latter two standards have been added by NRC staff despite longstanding and clear direction from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission not to use either standard in the way that staff proposes to use them."

"Returning to R&D expensing—by which investments are written off immediately—makes sense. Virtually every single country around the world allows companies to deduct the full cost of R&D—and many subsidize it heavily. China, among other countries, does so using a 'super-deduction,' allowing companies to deduct more than 100% of their R&D costs. In China, companies may deduct 175% of R&D expenses. The U.S. is the outlier; it punishes investment by not letting companies deduct even 100% of R&D costs."

"Coming up with a clear-cut response to American largesse is tricky for the EU as it involves negotiations between 27 member states. Also, Europe is ahead of the U.S. in some elements of its shift to clean energy. Excluding hybrids, electric vehicles accounted for 12% of new passenger vehicles sold in the EU last year, versus 5.8% in the U.S."

"As our nation charts energy policy for the 21st century, nuclear must play a leading role to ensure global competitiveness and American energy dominance. Nuclear energy will no doubt play an essential role in the United States' clean energy future, and we must pave the way. I believe we can do it with bipartisan cooperation."

Chris Barnard writes about the need to modernize regulations for nuclear energy in The Messenger. “As we continue to figure out how we will provide affordable, reliable and clean power to all Americans, we need to understand that there will be learning curves. Instead of giving up on nuclear energy, we must identify the ways that...