Congressman Byron Donalds unveiled his Summer 2024 Nuclear Push this week, a ten-part initiative comprising six legislative bills and four letters to international leaders to enhance U.S. leadership and competitiveness in the global nuclear energy market.

GOP Congressman Byron Donalds is announced an initiative this week to advance nuclear energy in the United States, introducing six pieces of legislation and sending letters to international leaders, aiming to position the U.S. as a global leader in the nuclear energy market.

The first submission, a resolution known as the ‘USA Russia China Nuclear Competition Resolution,’ asserts that it is “unacceptable” for China and Russia to surpass the U.S. in nuclear production and market share and calls for American nuclear energy dominance and competitiveness, promoting energy independence. The first bill, H.R. 9198, mandates a risk-informed, performance-based approach for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to expedite the nuclear licensing process in order to reduce bureaucratic delays, modernize procedures, and enhance practical solutions.

The ‘Exclude Pesky Fees From Duplicative Nuclear Reviews Act,’ H.R. 9199, limits the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) review process to novel concepts, thereby minimizing duplicative fees, while the ‘Atomic Supply Chain Solutions Act’ aims to reduce regulatory barriers and costs for the U.S. nuclear supply chain.

The ‘Nuclear USA Act‘ supports the U.S. uranium industry by enhancing mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and reprocessing capabilities, and the ‘Nuclear Waste Reprocessing Act’ directs the Secretary of Energy to facilitate the commercialization of domestic spent nuclear fuel reprocessing.

Supplementing his legislative efforts, Donalds signed onto four letters to international leaders, urging support for American nuclear exports. Recipients include Ajay Banga, President of The World Bank Group; Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Scott Nathan, CEO of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation; and Reta Jo Lewis, President of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S.

Florida GOP Representative María Salazar co-signed each letter.

“I am proud to announce the introduction of my Summer 2024 Nuclear Push,” Donalds wrote on X. “This ten-part initiative includes: six pieces of nuclear energy legislation [and] four pro-nuclear letters directed to the leaders of top international institutions with nuclear financing capabilities.”

In the letter to Banga, Donalds and five additional lawmakers urged the World Bank to end its “de facto ban” on civil nuclear energy projects, highlighting nuclear power as a scalable, carbon-free, and reliable energy source. The letter to Yellen, meanwhile, cited the importance of the Treasury Department’s support for American nuclear exports through International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and linked energy access to economic development and U.S. leadership in nuclear technology.

“We want to emphasize that access to readily-available energy is a precondition to economic development and thriving economies—both in the United States and across the world,” the letter to the Treasury states.

The letter to Nathan noted the Development Finance Corporation’s potential to finance American nuclear energy exports, calling for active involvement in global nuclear markets and the letter to Jo Lewis encouraged the Export-Import Bank to support American nuclear exports.