Testimony of Patrick White, PhD, Group Lead for Fusion Safety and Regulation Clean Air Task Force Legislative Hearing to Examine S. ____ Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act; Discussion Draft S. ___ RECHARGE Act; and Discussion Draft S. ____ Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act Before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Innovation and Safety

The testimony evaluates the Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act, the RECHARGE Act, and the Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act, arguing that while the intent to accelerate nuclear deployment is correct, some legislative approaches should be shifted to agency rulemaking to ensure transparency and regulatory flexibility.

• The Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act (S. 4529) is supported as a means to reduce construction costs and time by allowing the use of commercial-grade steel and concrete in non-safety structures, building on a precedent already established via a regulatory exemption for TerraPower's Natrium project.
• The RECHARGE Act's proposal to create a legislative categorical exclusion (CE) for advanced reactors at brownfield or retired fossil fuel sites is criticized because the NRC lacks sufficient evidence to justify such a broad exclusion and the bill would effectively shift public environmental reviews to internal agency processes.
• The Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act is supported in its intent to remove prescriptive 1990-era statutory requirements for mandatory hearings and environmental impact statements for uranium enrichment facilities, which would allow the NRC to apply more flexible, modern regulatory frameworks.
• The testimony suggests that instead of codifying pre-license construction and redress plans for enrichment facilities in statute, Congress should direct the NRC to establish these through rulemaking, similar to the Limited Work Authorization (LWA) process used for nuclear reactors.
• U.S. energy security is currently hindered by a reliance on foreign uranium enrichment, with only 20% of low enriched uranium (LEU) services purchased by utilities in 2024 coming from U.S. origin companies.

APA

White, P. (2026). Testimony of Patrick White, PhD, Group Lead for Fusion Safety and Regulation Clean Air Task Force Legislative Hearing to Examine S. ____ Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act; Discussion Draft S. ___ RECHARGE Act; and Discussion Draft S. ____ Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act Before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Innovation and Safety. Clean Air Task Force. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20153456/epw-nuclear-testimony.pdf

Chicago

White, Patrick. Testimony of Patrick White, PhD, Group Lead for Fusion Safety and Regulation Clean Air Task Force Legislative Hearing to Examine S. ____ Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act; Discussion Draft S. ___ RECHARGE Act; and Discussion Draft S. ____ Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act Before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Innovation and Safety. Clean Air Task Force, 2026. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20153456/epw-nuclear-testimony.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=White |first1=Patrick |title=Testimony of Patrick White, PhD, Group Lead for Fusion Safety and Regulation Clean Air Task Force Legislative Hearing to Examine S. ____ Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act; Discussion Draft S. ___ RECHARGE Act; and Discussion Draft S. ____ Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act Before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Innovation and Safety |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=20 May 2026 |url=https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20153456/epw-nuclear-testimony.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{white2026testimony, author = {White, Patrick}, title = {{Testimony of Patrick White, PhD, Group Lead for Fusion Safety and Regulation Clean Air Task Force Legislative Hearing to Examine S. \_\_\_\_ Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act; Discussion Draft S. \_\_\_ RECHARGE Act; and Discussion Draft S. \_\_\_\_ Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act Before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Innovation and Safety}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2026}, month = may, url = {https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20153456/epw-nuclear-testimony.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }