H.R. 2813 — Small Modular Reactor Commercialization Act of 2025

This section designates the Act as the “Small Modular Reactor Commercialization Act of 2025” and sets forth the table of contents.

This section increases the rated capacity threshold for individual modular reactors to 500,000 electrical kilowatts (from 300,000 electrical kilowatts) and their combined rated capacity to 1,500,000 electrical kilowatts (from 1,300,000 electrical kilowatts) for purposes of determining required primary financial protection under the Price-Anderson Act. (As background, the Price-Anderson Act requires licensees of commercial nuclear power facilities to maintain financial protection—typically the maximum liability insurance available from private sources, currently $500 million per reactor plus retrospective premiums—to cover public liability claims from nuclear incidents, with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission able to set lesser amounts for smaller facilities based on size and hazard criteria.)

This section directs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Secretary of Energy to revise NRC and Department of Energy guidance on the maximum electrical output of small modular reactors and microreactors to align with the definitions of those terms in section 7 of this Act.

This section prohibits the Secretary of Energy from excluding projects or reactor technologies from funding eligibility for the development, demonstration, or deployment of grid-scale small modular reactors (i.e., advanced nuclear reactors designed for smaller-scale power generation) solely because a single reactor unit's electrical output exceeds any threshold between 50 and 500 electrical megawatts. Subsection (b) clarifies that this provision does not limit the Secretary's authority to make awards under DOE solicitations issued prior to enactment.

This section directs the Secretary of Energy to establish the Small Modular Reactor Commercialization and Industrialization Competitiveness Working Group to (1) identify small modular reactor technologies with an application submitted or approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or a foreign nuclear regulator with a memorandum of cooperation with the NRC; (2) assess and recommend initiatives to position the United States as the leading location for commercializing such technologies after initial deployment and to attract manufacturing investments; (3) recommend policy changes to enable U.S. manufacturing of such technologies undergoing first-of-a-kind deployment abroad; (4) assess and recommend initiatives to improve workforce readiness for scaled commercialization; and (5) identify strategic research objectives for industrialization and cost reduction following first-of-a-kind deployment. The Secretary of Energy (or designee) serves as chairperson, with mandatory membership from the Departments of Energy (including the Office of Nuclear Energy and national laboratories), Defense, State, Commerce, Interior, and Treasury, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, plus any additional members as determined by the Secretary. Not later than December 1 each year through 2030, the Secretary must submit a report on the working group's findings and recommendations to the House Committees on Science, Space, and Technology and Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

This section establishes definitions for this Act, including (1) "advanced nuclear reactor" as having the meaning given the term in 42 U.S.C. 16271(b)(1) (i.e., a nuclear fission reactor with significant improvements over reactors operating on December 27, 2020—such as increased safety features, lower waste, and operational flexibility—or a fusion reactor); (2) "microreactor" as an advanced nuclear reactor with a rated capacity of less than 50 electrical megawatts; and (3) "small modular reactor" as an advanced nuclear reactor (A) with a rated capacity of less than 500 electrical megawatts and (B) that can be constructed and operated in combination with similar reactors at a single site.