Avoid Our Adversaries and Buy American Nuclear Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3485 To establish an international initiative to support the global deployment of civil nuclear technologies, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 18, 2023 Mr. DONALDS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To establish an international initiative to support the global deployment of civil nuclear technologies, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Avoid Our Adversaries 4 and Buy American Nuclear Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. INTERNATIONAL CIVIL NUCLEAR PROGRAM SUP- 6 PORT. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 8 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in 9 coordination with the Secretary, shall launch an inter- 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 3485 IH national initiative (referred to in this section as the ‘‘ini- 1 tiative’’) to provide financial assistance to, and facilitate 2 the building of technical capacities by, in accordance with 3 this section, embarking civil nuclear nations for activities 4 relating to the development of civil nuclear energy pro- 5 grams. 6 (b) FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.— 7 (1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the initia- 8 tive, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the 9 Secretary, may award grants of financial assistance 10 to embarking civil nuclear nations in accordance 11 with this subsection— 12 (A) for activities relating to the develop- 13 ment of civil nuclear energy programs; and 14 (B) to facilitate the building of technical 15 capacities for those activities. 16 (2) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant of finan- 17 cial assistance under paragraph (1) shall be not 18 more than $5,500,000. 19 (3) LIMITATIONS.—The Secretary of State, in 20 coordination with the Secretary, may award— 21 (A) not more than 1 grant of financial as- 22 sistance under paragraph (1) to any 1 embark- 23 ing civil nuclear nation each fiscal year; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 3485 IH (B) not more than a total of 5 grants of 1 financial assistance under paragraph (1) to any 2 1 embarking civil nuclear nation. 3 (c) SENIOR ADVISORS.— 4 (1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the initia- 5 tive, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the 6 Secretary, may provide financial assistance to an 7 embarking civil nuclear nation for the purpose of 8 contracting with a U.S. nuclear energy company to 9 hire 1 or more senior advisors to assist the embark- 10 ing civil nuclear nation in establishing a civil nuclear 11 program. 12 (2) REQUIREMENT.—A senior advisor described 13 in paragraph (1) shall have relevant experience and 14 qualifications to advise the embarking civil nuclear 15 nation on, and facilitate on behalf of the embarking 16 civil nuclear nation, 1 or more of the following ac- 17 tivities: 18 (A) The development of financing relation- 19 ships. 20 (B) The development of a standardized fi- 21 nancing and project management framework for 22 the construction of nuclear power plants. 23 (C) The development of a standardized li- 24 censing framework for— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 3485 IH (i) light water civil nuclear tech- 1 nologies; and 2 (ii) non-light water civil nuclear tech- 3 nologies and advanced nuclear reactors. 4 (D) The identification of qualified organi- 5 zations and service providers. 6 (E) The identification of funds to support 7 payment for services required to develop a civil 8 nuclear program. 9 (F) Market analysis. 10 (G) The identification of the safety, secu- 11 rity, safeguards, and nuclear governance re- 12 quired for a civil nuclear program. 13 (H) Risk allocation, risk management, and 14 nuclear liability. 15 (I) Technical assessments of nuclear reac- 16 tors and technologies. 17 (J) The identification of actions necessary 18 to participate in a global nuclear liability re- 19 gime based on the Convention on Supple- 20 mentary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, 21 with Annex, done at Vienna September 12, 22 1997 (TIAS 15–415). 23 (K) Stakeholder engagement. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 3485 IH (L) Management of spent nuclear fuel and 1 nuclear waste. 2 (M) Any other major activities to support 3 the establishment of a civil nuclear program, 4 such as the establishment of export, financing, 5 construction, training, operations, and edu- 6 cation requirements. 7 (3) CLARIFICATION.—Financial assistance 8 under this subsection may be provided to an em- 9 barking civil nuclear nation in addition to any finan- 10 cial assistance provided to that embarking civil nu- 11 clear nation under subsection (b). 12 (d) LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE TO EMBARKING 13 CIVIL NUCLEAR NATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after 14 the date of enactment of this Act, the Offices of the In- 15 spectors General for the Department of State and the De- 16 partment of Energy shall coordinate— 17 (1) to establish and submit to the appropriate 18 committees of Congress a joint strategic plan to con- 19 duct comprehensive oversight of activities authorized 20 under this section to prevent fraud, waste, and 21 abuse; and 22 (2) to engage in independent and effective over- 23 sight of activities authorized under this section 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 3485 IH through joint or individual audits, inspections, inves- 1 tigations, or evaluations. 2 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 3 (1) ADVANCED NUCLEAR REACTOR.—The term 4 ‘‘advanced nuclear reactor’’ means— 5 (A) a nuclear fission reactor, including a 6 prototype plant (as defined in sections 50.2 and 7 52.1 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations 8 (or successor regulations)), with significant im- 9 provements compared to reactors operating on 10 October 19, 2016, including improvements such 11 as— 12 (i) additional inherent safety features; 13 (ii) lower waste yields; 14 (iii) improved fuel and material per- 15 formance; 16 (iv) increased tolerance to loss of fuel 17 cooling; 18 (v) enhanced reliability or improved 19 resilience; 20 (vi) increased proliferation resistance; 21 (vii) increased thermal efficiency; 22 (viii) reduced consumption of cooling 23 water and other environmental impacts; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 3485 IH (ix) the ability to integrate into elec- 1 tric applications and nonelectric applica- 2 tions; 3 (x) modular sizes to allow for deploy- 4 ment that corresponds with the demand 5 for electricity or process heat; and 6 (xi) operational flexibility to respond 7 to changes in demand for electricity or 8 process heat and to complement integra- 9 tion with intermittent renewable energy or 10 energy storage; 11 (B) a fusion reactor; and 12 (C) a radioisotope power system that uti- 13 lizes heat from radioactive decay to generate 14 energy. 15 (2) CIVIL NUCLEAR.—The term ‘‘civil nuclear’’ 16 means activities relating to— 17 (A) nuclear plant construction; 18 (B) nuclear fuel services; 19 (C) nuclear energy financing; 20 (D) nuclear plant operations; 21 (E) nuclear plant regulation; 22 (F) nuclear medicine; 23 (G) nuclear safety; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 3485 IH (H) community engagement in areas in 1 reasonable proximity to nuclear sites; 2 (I) infrastructure support for nuclear en- 3 ergy; 4 (J) nuclear plant decommissioning; 5 (K) nuclear liability; 6 (L) safe storage and safe disposal of spent 7 nuclear fuel; 8 (M) environmental safeguards; 9 (N) nuclear nonproliferation and security; 10 and 11 (O) technology related to the matters de- 12 scribed in subparagraphs (A) through (N). 13 (3) EMBARKING CIVIL NUCLEAR NATION.— 14 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘embarking 15 civil nuclear nation’’ means a country that— 16 (i) does not have a civil nuclear en- 17 ergy program; 18 (ii) is in the process of developing or 19 expanding a civil nuclear energy program, 20 including safeguards and a legal and regu- 21 latory framework, for— 22 (I) nuclear safety; 23 (II) nuclear security; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •HR 3485 IH (III) radioactive waste manage- 1 ment; 2 (IV) civil nuclear energy; 3 (V) environmental safeguards; 4 (VI) community engagement in 5 areas in reasonable proximity to nu- 6 clear sites; 7 (VII) nuclear liability; or 8 (VIII) advanced nuclear reactor 9 licensing; 10 (iii) is in the process of selecting, de- 11 veloping, constructing, or utilizing ad- 12 vanced light water reactors, advanced nu- 13 clear reactors, or advanced civil nuclear 14 technologies; or 15 (iv) had an annual per capita gross 16 domestic product of not more than 17 $28,000 in 2020. 18 (B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘embarking 19 civil nuclear nation’’ does not include— 20 (i) the People’s Republic of China; 21 (ii) the Russian Federation; 22 (iii) the Republic of Belarus; 23 (iv) the Islamic Republic of Iran; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •HR 3485 IH (v) the Democratic People’s Republic 1 of Korea; 2 (vi) the Republic of Cuba; 3 (vii) the Bolivarian Republic of Ven- 4 ezuela; 5 (viii) the Syrian Arab Republic; 6 (ix) Burma; or 7 (x) any other country— 8 (I) the property or interests in 9 property of the government of which 10 are blocked pursuant to the Inter- 11 national Emergency Economic Powers 12 Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); or 13 (II) the government of which the 14 Secretary of State has determined has 15 repeatedly provided support for acts 16 of international terrorism for purposes 17 of— 18 (aa) section 620A(a) of the 19 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 20 (22 U.S.C. 2371(a)); 21 (bb) section 40(d) of the 22 Arms Export Control Act (22 23 U.S.C. 2780(d)); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 11 •HR 3485 IH (cc) section 1754(c)(1)(A)(i) 1 of the Export Control Reform 2 Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 3 4813(c)(1)(A)(i)); or 4 (dd) any other relevant pro- 5 vision of law. 6 (4) SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL.—The term ‘‘spent 7 nuclear fuel’’ has the meaning given the term in sec- 8 tion 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 9 U.S.C. 10101). 10 (5) U.S. NUCLEAR ENERGY COMPANY.—The 11 term ‘‘U.S. nuclear energy company’’ means a com- 12 pany that— 13 (A) is organized under the laws of, or oth- 14 erwise subject to the jurisdiction of, the United 15 States; and 16 (B) is involved in the nuclear energy indus- 17 try. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Jun 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3485.IH H3485 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB