By Daniel Dassow
Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.
(TNS)
The U.S. House of Representatives kept some tax credit incentives for new nuclear projects in its tax break and immigration megabill because the industry would die out without them, said U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN).
Fleischmann, whose district includes Chattanooga and a nuclear hub in Oak Ridge, advocated for the House committee overseeing tax legislation to preserve incentives for nuclear projects passed in a giant climate bill signed by former President Joe Biden.
Once they realized that it literally would have been the death knell to the new nuclear industry, it was preserved. My hope is that it would be preserved in the Senate,” Fleischmann said in an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Fleischmann voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed by then-President Biden in 2022 after passing the House and Senate with no Republican support. He said at the time Democrats were “packing their climate agenda” into the bill in an interview with Fox Business.
“This is just bad legislation at a very, very difficult time in American history, so we’ve got to see it go away,” he told the TV network in 2022.
Support for construction of new nuclear reactors, both small advanced reactors and traditional large-scale power plants, is a rare policy continuity between the Biden and Trump administrations. The clean energy source creates around 20% of U.S. electricity.
Other forms of clean energy did not fare as well in the multitrillion-dollar GOP bill, named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which House Republicans approved by a single vote on May 22.
The House eliminated clean energy tax credits for non-nuclear facilities that begin construction more than 60 days after the bill’s passage. Non-nuclear facilities that qualify must become operational by 2029.
The House bill allows nuclear facilities to qualify for tax incentives if they begin construction by the end of 2028, though many planned nuclear projects aren’t scheduled to become operational until the 2030s.
If the nuclear tax credits were eliminated, advanced nuclear companies and their projects would end, Fleischmann said.
“The model that these companies have relied on, that the industry has looked to, and not only in terms of the designers and the reactor providers, but also to the ultimate users, the utilities and the like—it would have literally collapsed without that,” Fleischmann said in an interview. “We were fortunate we were able to preserve those.”
Nuclear capital
The congressman, who chairs the influential House subcommittee on energy and water appropriations, has good reason to want nuclear incentives preserved.
Although Fleischmann voted against the legislation, his district has received $924 million in clean energy manufacturing and utility investments with another $349 million announced but not yet spent, according to a database compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rhodium Group.
The figures seem to exclude plans for a multibillion-dollar centrifuge uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge announced last year by Orano USA, the U.S. subsidiary of a French nuclear fuel company. Gov. Bill Lee said the investment would be the largest in Tennessee state history, though the company has not shared the exact amount.
“Most of the credits are aimed at facilities constructed for new energy generation. They do not apply to developing our nuclear fuel production facility in Oak Ridge regardless of deadline,” Orano USA spokesperson Curtis Roberts said in an email. “The near-term deadline of 2028 will have the advantage of incentivizing industry players, including ourselves, to overcome the tendency of nuclear energy projects for extensions and delays.”
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider, has invested $350 million in its project to build the first U.S. small modular reactors at its Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge. The project is eligible for tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act under the House bill if construction begins by the end of 2028, spokesperson Scott Fiedler said in an email.
“Until the final bill is signed into law, it would be inappropriate to speculate on financing or the value,” Fiedler said.
Fleischmann said he has not heard from constituents about fears for the future of non-nuclear projects if the tax credits are eliminated.
“Outside of the nuclear industry, nobody else contacted me,” Fleischmann said. “I have not had any personal contacts by anybody else in any other forms of energy. Having said that, it could be affecting them, but usually when something’s affecting an industry or someone, I hear from them.”
Major advanced nuclear companies, including California-based Kairos Power and Maryland-based X-energy, also have facilities under construction in Oak Ridge. The town of around 33,000 people was created by the federal government as the first production site of the Manhattan Project.
“We do not disclose specifics about project financing. However, we can confirm that Kairos Power projects would benefit from clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act if they are preserved,” Kairos spokesperson Ashley Lewis said in an email.
Tennessee is home to 229 nuclear companies, with at least 154 of those companies in East Tennessee, according to the East Tennessee Economic Council in Oak Ridge. Lee created a nuclear fund in 2023 to support projects that locate in Tennessee.
‘Exciting time’
President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on May 23 in support of the U.S. nuclear industry.
One order directed the Department of Energy to work with the nuclear industry to upgrade existing nuclear plants to get five additional gigawatts of electricity, the equivalent of around five large reactors, and to have 10 large reactors under construction by 2030.
The orders aim to quadruple American nuclear capacity from 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050. The U.S. has more nuclear reactors than any nation, but has fallen far behind other nations on construction of new reactors, including China.
The Trump administration wants to direct funding toward nuclear projects, including restarting closed power plants and constructing advanced reactors.
Panelists at the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit, an annual meeting of tech and defense officials, celebrated the executive orders last week.
“What an exciting time to be part of the nuclear industry,” TVA CEO Don Moul said at the summit in Oak Ridge on Thursday. “In my nearly 40 years in this business, I cannot remember anything close to this level of enthusiasm for the development of new nuclear technology, and that was before the latest round of executive orders.”
Photo caption: U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann.
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© 2025 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.). Visit www.timesfreepress.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: Congress, Legislation, tax credits, Taxes, Trump tax cuts, Trump tax plan
