Goldberg Segalla Product Liability Series: Containing Nuclear and Thermo Nuclear Verdicts
Hogan Lovells' Mary Anne Sullivan on the floor of Hogan Lovells Global Energy Summit
Holtec Palisades is the first project to receive a conditional funding commitment from the U.S. government through the Inflation Reduction Act's Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment ("EIR") program....more
It has been a defining month for nuclear power's role in a net zero world. On the second day of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates, the International Atomic Energy Agency...more
The United States and the United Kingdom announced a partnership to address a range of global challenges, including the transition to clean energy. As part of the partnership, announced on June 9, 2023, the two countries...more
Domestic Nuclear Power Advancement: Barriers to Entry and the Need for a National Strategy - As previously reported on this site, nuclear generation development has taken hold as a potential promise for a long-term,...more
The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded $46 million to eight U.S. companies working to advance the development of commercial fusion energy technology (including our client Commonwealth Fusion Systems), furthering the...more
The move represents a step forward for the small modular nuclear reactor industry, but legislative uncertainty over new nuclear facilities in the US remains. As part of long-range plans to address climate change, many...more
In April 2023, Idaho National Laboratory (“INL”), a U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) National Laboratory, published a report entitled “Recommendations to Improve the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reactor Licensing and...more
The US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy recently issued an update to its “road map for implementing a consent-based siting process” to site one or more federal interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel....more
On April 13, 2023, Commissioners of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) directed the NRC staff to create a regulatory framework for fusion energy systems, building on the agency’s existing process for licensing the...more
Today, April 3, the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee (“EPW”) introduced new legislation that continues to demonstrate bipartisan support for advanced nuclear reactor developments, including expanding levels of...more
On March 30, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) published a report walking through the benefits and latest progress in fusion energy developments, while noting certain challenges and proposing policy approaches to...more
On March 15, 2023, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, announced that nuclear power will be classified as “environmentally sustainable” in UK’s green taxonomy, “giving it access to the same investment...more
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires nuclear power reactor licensees to maintain decommissioning cost estimates and to adjust those estimates periodically to account for inflation and other matters, pursuant to...more
The US Department of Energy (DOE) published on January 31 two secretarial determinations in the Federal Register that change the countries that are eligible for general authorizations under 10 CFR Part 810 (Part 810). The...more
On October 3, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin unveiled Virginia’s 2022 Energy Plan, calling for deployment of the state’s first small “modular nuclear reactor” in the region and going all-in on nuclear....more
On September 14, the NRC staff publicly released its preliminary White Paper on “Licensing and Regulating Fusion Energy Systems” to support upcoming meetings with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards on options for...more
The British Energy Security Strategy ("the Strategy"), published on April 7, 2022, aims to ensure that the United Kingdom has "a flow of energy that is affordable, clean and above all secure." Published against the background...more
The UK government has enacted the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Act 2022 (the “Nuclear Act”) on 31 March 2022. This note sets out a summary of the Nuclear Act and looks into the question whether it is an adequate measure towards...more
On April 12, 2022, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) staff completed its systematic assessment of how the NRC approaches environmental justice in its programs, policies and activities, by submitting to the...more
The Commission recently approved the NRC Staff’s recommendation to pursue a 24-month schedule for updating the agency’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (LR GEIS). The Commission’s...more
The NRC is taking an important step toward an inclusive licensing regime for a new generation of reactors. On January 3, the NRC staff submitted for commission approval a recommended final rule on “Emergency Preparedness for...more
On December 10, the NRC staff issued SECY-21-0105 seeking approval from the NRC commissioners to publish a notice of final rule that would officially replace the NRC's sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI)...more
On December 17, the NRC published a report to Congress on the continuing need for and any potential modifications to the Price-Anderson Act (PAA). The NRC was required to submit the report, “Public Liability Insurance and...more
Several years ago, the US government embarked on a project to standardize federal agency programs—including the NRC’s—for managing unclassified-but-sensitive information. At the NRC, this government-wide Controlled...more
On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, better known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill,” into law during a ceremony at the White House. ...more