WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following op-ed by Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, appeared in the Washington Times today. “It’s been more than 80 years since Enrico Fermi first harnessed the power of the atom in his Chicago-based lab. Since that first moment of nuclear power production, the United States has led the world in the development and deployment of nuclear technology. “Now, at the dawn of the new technological age of artificial intelligence (AI) and of adversarial competition from China, our nuclear energy leadership remains critical for our national and energy security. “In recent years, China has sought to challenge our dominance in nuclear power. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China is on track to overtake the U.S. as the top nuclear power provider by the end of the decade. In the last five years, more than 80% of the global supply of new nuclear energy capacity came from China alone. “Time is of the essence; we must strengthen our nuclear infrastructure and deploy more nuclear power generation, including advanced technologies, to help meet our growing energy needs. To keep America on the leading edge of industries across the entire economy, we need the reliable energy capacity that nuclear power can bring to the grid. “Nuclear energy is critical to our national security and our energy security. Nuclear energy powers our navy, fosters the engineering and technical capacity for both military and industrial applications, and provides the power that is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for these industries and consumers alike. “Nuclear Energy is also clean energy. And with new designs, can be deployed near factories and even AI data centers. “In the last Congress, we delivered major statutory reforms to help accelerate nuclear power and help us maintain our competitive advantage. “One major reform, known as the ADVANCE Act, is a law refocusing the government’s mission to include efficient, predictable licensing, the proper siting of reactors, and robust international engagement to promote more rapid deployment of advanced nuclear reactors. “We also enacted laws to ban Russian uranium and to support the build out of our domestic nuclear fuel sources, including for the most advanced reactors, ensuring that we are not forced to rely on adversarial nations such as China and Russia for critical supplies. “By reforming the process for licensing new reactors, we are helping to ensure that regulatory red tape will not be a major impediment to successful deployment. Developers can now focus their attention on what it takes to finance and safely build out our next generation of nuclear reactors. “The scale of future energy demand is unprecedented and made more challenging by policies that have been forcing the retirement of baseload generation in our electric system. “Our nation will need tremendous amounts of generation to meet growing consumer and AI data center demand, with some estimates showing the need for about 250 gigawatts in new dispatchable generation to ensure we have reliable power. Meeting this challenge is vital. “Earlier this year, the Department of Energy released a startling report, warning that power outages could increase by 100 times in 2030 as a result of baseload power plants coming offline, along with projections for increased demand created by the need to develop AI technologies. “To meet this demand and solve our reliability problems, we need to deploy all our tremendous energy resources, from natural gas to coal to uranium and hydropower, that can provide reliable electricity. This is why the successful deployment of nuclear power in the coming years is also so critical. “The tremendous power from nuclear energy can help rapidly fill in the gap in baseload power we need, diversify our energy supplies, and develop new technologies all while strengthening our national security simultaneously. “Losing the race for AI dominance to China would be the equivalent of losing the space race to the Soviet Union a devastating blow to our economy, our privacy, and our national security. To ensure our success, we need to invest in nuclear technologies. “Our nation’s security and the strength of our electric grid will depend on our ability to develop and maintain advanced nuclear energy. By continuing to focus on strengthening our fuel supply chain and streamlining the permitting process to bring more nuclear reactors online, we can ensure our nation continues to have an abundance of clean, affordable, and reliable energy for decades to come.” ###