Congress is set to take real action to shore up uranium supply chains, Nick writes.

Why it matters: The U.S. has very little capacity right now, and there's bipartisan concern about Russia's role as a dominant global supplier.

Driving the news: The final defense authorization bill, which dropped late last night, includes the Nuclear Fuel Security Act — legislation that nuclear energy advocates see as an important early step in developing a domestic supply of enriched uranium for advanced fission reactors.

• The Joe Manchin-John Barrasso bill would create a new program at the Energy Department to develop domestic supplies of low-enriched uranium, or LEU, and high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.
• It would also create a demonstration program for DOE to supply advanced reactors until the U.S. can develop a commercial scale domestic fuel supply industry.
• The Senate tacked the legislation onto its version of the NDAA, and House Energy and Commerce marked up the bill as an individual measure earlier this week.
• But as we reported, the final NDAA conference report does not include the ADVANCE Act, the Senate's Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing reform proposal.

Between the lines: The full NDAA is likely to pass by next week (it cleared a Senate procedural vote today). But we haven't heard the last word from this Congress on nuclear fuel.

• The House is set to vote next week on legislation from E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers to ban Russian uranium imports.
• Barrasso, who sponsored similar legislation, told reporters today he thinks it would pass the Senate independently, too.
• And notably, the Senate security supplemental includes $2.7 billion for domestic HALEU and LEU – contingent on Congress or the Biden administration acting to limit Russian imports.

Republicans voted down the supplemental yesterday because of disputes about immigration at the U.S. border, but there appears to be bipartisan support for that uranium money.

• Congress already offered up $700 million for HALEU in the IRA, and the House GOP's energy-water approps bill would dole out billions more for enriched uranium.
• "If this is additional dollars, I certainly think Republicans will be warm to that," Rep. Chuck Fleischmann told Nick.

The intrigue: There's also bipartisan chatter on both sides of the Hill about moving an NRC licensing overhaul package, even though it was left out of the NDAA.

• E&C this week moved its own bill, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, which would slash licensing fees for advanced reactors and require NRC rulemaking to speed up the process.
• "A lot of the elements in there were what we had in ADVANCE, so we're excited about that," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the lead Senate sponsor, told Nick this morning.
• Capito said she plans to sit down with her House counterparts "as soon as next week" to start formulating a compromise.
• She acknowledged that it's not going to get done before the end of the year. But we expect a real negotiation headed into the approps deadlines in early 2024.

Nick's got a few more notes on the NDAA:

🏭 1. CHIPS NEPA futures: The bill dropped a provision written by Sens. Mark Kelly and Ted Cruz that would have sped up environmental permitting for semiconductor projects funded under the CHIPS and Science Act.

• House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman had opposed its inclusion because he thinks Congress should enact broader permitting changes, rather than making special exemptions.
• "If you really want to address Chinese supply chains, you need to do something for your mining, and for chip manufacturing, and for all the other things," he told reporters yesterday.

⛏️ 2. Mineral extravaganza: The NDAA's got a provision to support the purchasing of domestic "critical minerals" (a long list of materials including aluminum, cobalt, copper and lithium).

• And it would require a report from the Pentagon on foreign sourcing of those minerals.

🤫 3. Disclosure notice: The bill would effectively block the Biden administration from requiring defense contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions or climate-related financial risks.

✈️ 4. GREET go away: The conference report doesn't include language that was in both the House and Senate versions on how the government should measure air travel emissions.

• Ag legislators want the government to use a model favorable to biofuels, known as GREET, as we explained earlier this year.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse yesterday reintroduced a carbon tariff bill that he hopes will add another plank to the bipartisan discussion on the Hill, Nick writes.

Why it matters: The Democratic counterproposal to Sen. Bill Cassidy's "Foreign Pollution Fee" comes as lawmakers from both parties are increasingly wary of Europe's carbon border adjustment.

Driving the news: Whitehouse first floated his bill back in 2022, but this time he's got House cosponsors, led by Rep. Suzan DelBene.

• The bill proposes an import tax on energy-intensive goods — including fossil fuels and industrial products — paired with a domestic carbon tax assessed only on the heaviest greenhouse gas polluters.
• The proceeds would go into a decarbonization grant program modeled after EPA's Diesel Emissions Reduction Act program.
• This year's version of the bill also includes a provision to encourage international "carbon clubs" and exempt companies who pay a carbon tax elsewhere from paying the U.S. border fee.

Our thought bubble: Republicans won't support the domestic carbon tax element of this bill, but it's a proposal worth watching if Congress can figure out how to move carbon tariffs forward.

👎 Solyndra vibes: House E&C Republicans sent a letter to DOE requesting answers on a loan to Li-Cycle, a battery company that's going belly up.

• The letter to Loan Programs Office director Jigar Shah indicates he will become a target in the committee's probe.

Tribal guidance: EPA just published revised guidance for consultations with tribes, right as the Interior Department put out its own final rule on Native American grave preservation.

🌲 Carbon credit move: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released guidance for voluntary carbon credit contracts, indicating the agency is trying to shore up fraud problems.

🐟 Salmon saviors: The Fish and Wildlife Service says it may protect chinook salmon in Washington state as endangered. We'll see if hydro allies respond.

🚊 Oh Canada: U.S. and Canadian officials have struck a deal on reducing emissions from rail travel.

⛏️ Resolution watch: The Forest Service finalized its land management plan for Arizona's Tonto National Forest, a site integral to the Resolution copper mine.