The ADVANCE Act Mandate: NRC Permits Allied Foreign Direct Investment in U.S. Nuclear Facilities
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
This action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission directly aligns the agency's regulatory framework with section 301 of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024, known as the ADVANCE Act.
Historically, sections 103 and 104 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 strictly prohibited the issuance of utilization and production facility licenses to applicants known to be owned, controlled, or dominated by foreign entities.
The incoming regulation dismantles that blanket prohibition for specific international allies, opening a legal pathway for foreign capital to directly fund and control commercial nuclear power reactors in the United States.
This statutory mandate deliberately rewrites 10 CFR 50.38 and 10 CFR 54.17(b) to exempt a tightly defined list of foreign nations from the historic licensing restrictions.
Under the finalized text, the prohibition on foreign ownership, control, or domination no longer applies to the governments, incorporated corporations, or citizens of thirty-seven designated countries.
This approved roster pulls directly from the thirty-six member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, combined with the Republic of India.
Entities operating out of several foreign countries are now eligible to apply for utilization facility licenses.
Access to the United States nuclear sector under this exception is entirely dependent upon strict regulatory preconditions.
The Commission must first explicitly determine that issuing a license to an exempted foreign entity is not inimical to the common defense and security, nor to the health and safety of the public.
Active reviews of international sanctions lists will remain a mandatory hurdle within this inimicality determination process.
Crucially, the ADVANCE Act required the exclusion of any nation that possessed government bodies or persons subject to sanctions under section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or those featured on the Department of Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, exactly on the date of the statute's enactment on July 9, 2024.
Because of these targeted statutory exclusions, the Republic of Turkey is deliberately stripped from the list of qualifying OECD countries.
Regulators determined that the Republic of Turkey's Presidency of Defense Industries was actively subject to sanctions under section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act on the July 2024 cutoff date.
Consequently, Turkish citizens, corporations, and government entities remain barred from the newly established ownership carve-outs and cannot obtain utilization facility licenses under this exception.
The operational scope of the deregulation is intentionally narrow in its physical application.
The rule maintains the existing foreign ownership prohibitions specifically for production facilities, applying the newly expanded exceptions solely to utilization facilities.
Agency officials expect these administrative changes to yield immediate qualitative benefits by inviting foreign investment into existing and emerging advanced reactor technologies to bolster economic and energy security.
The updated framework imposes no new safety requirements and does not alter the baseline application process for operators seeking new licenses or renewals. It strictly targets the financial and ownership architecture surrounding nuclear infrastructure.
