Illustration: Sarah Grillo / Axios
The upcoming defense authorization bill is a likely vehicle for nuclear and minerals programs that share national-security priorities.
Why it matters: Growing power demand is fueling interest in both nuclear and minerals, as are the worries about Chinese-dominated supply chains.
- The NDAA will test bipartisan willpower after Republicans rammed through a reconciliation package of GOP priorities — including cuts to wind, solar and EV incentives.
Zoom in: Rep. Pat Harrigan, a former Army officer and nuclear engineer, is leading efforts to create a pilot program to deploy reactors on military bases.
- That effort complements White House executive orders in May that lean on a DOD-DOE partnership to accelerate reactor technology by 2028.
- Harrigan is still working on the program's scope. But he told Axios that $30 million to $45 million micro-reactors are perhaps "an easy sell" compared with small modular reactors that can cost up to $6 billion.
- "We have an imperative to isolate [a] military base's electrical grid and harden those," Harrigan said. Also, "we have a unique opportunity" to push power back on the civilian grid to provide more growth.
On the minerals side, Rep. Rob Wittman is working with committee chairs to include his legislation that would create a $2.5 billion mineral reserve.
- The reserve would provide a price floor that insulates U.S. producers from China-stoked price volatility, Wittman told Axios.
- "You can create sustained production here by making sure that there's a floor in the market price," Wittman said.
- Combined with funding from the Defense Production Act and loosening permitting restrictions, "I am confident that those tools will allow us to quickly get back into the mining business," he said.
Between the lines: The GOP tax and spending law includes $1 billion for Defense Production Act priorities, though a lack of specific direction in the legislation spurred some Republican pushback.
- Wittman said he supports more funding "as long as it's very limited and defined as to where the money goes for critical minerals and rare earths."
Zoom out: Sen. Todd Young, a leader on minerals issues, wants a standalone bipartisan package to address critical minerals in which various committees would put together proposals.
- "There is fairly broad bipartisan support around becoming more resilient, especially in areas that invoke national security, and this is clearly one of them," Young told Axios.
- Young wants to replicate his work with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2021 on a bill that ultimately became the $50 billion CHIPS and Science Act.
- Senate leadership is "giving strong consideration to taking up some bipartisan, multi-jurisdictional issues on the back end of reconciliation," Young said.
Our thought bubble: The measures have a good chance to catch a ride on NDAA — one of the year's last must-pass vehicles — despite partisan tensions.
- Rep. Eric Swalwell, co-chair of the Critical Minerals Caucus, told Axios in December that Democrats are coming around to support minerals priorities.
- Swalwell has a bill with Guy Reschenthaler that would create a tax credit for rare earths.
