Revises guidelines governing: (1) licensee insurance premiums; and (2) liability and indemnification limits.
Limits any civil penalty for a tax-exempt nonprofit contractor, subcontractor, or supplier to the amount of the performance fee paid by the Secretary.
Amends the Department of Energy Organization Act to add two Assistant Secretaries of Energy to serve, respectively, as Director of: (1) the Office of Science; and (2) the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science, and Technology.
Instructs the Secretary of Energy to establish or continue certain programs including: (1) specified nuclear energy research and technology programs; (2) investments to increase electricity capacity at commercial nuclear plants; (3) continued domestic capability for uranium mining, conversion, and enrichment industries; and (4) university nuclear engineering education research and infrastructure.
Amends the USEC Privatization Act to prohibit the Secretary from selling surplus natural uranium and conversion services through 2006. Requires the sale of uranium hexaflouride.
Authorizes the Secretary to place the Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant into cold standby condition for a five-year period.
Mandates a program to: (1) demonstrate the NRC Early Site Permit process; (2) evaluate opportunities for completion of partially constructed nuclear plants; (3) assess opportunities for Generation IV reactors; and (4) research potential licensing issues associated with new reactor technologies and designs.
Declares electricity generated by a nuclear plant to be an environmentally preferable product. Conditions Federal funding for a domestic or international organization that supports electricity production facilities upon inclusion of emission-free electricity production facility projects that use nuclear fuel.
Establishes the Office of Spent Nuclear Fuel Research to implement a research and development regarding treatment, recycling, and disposal of high-level nuclear radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Directs the Secretary to: (1) conduct advanced fuel recycling technology research and development to promote electrometallurgical technology as a proliferation-resistant alternative to aqueous reprocessing; and (2) establish the Advanced Accelerator Applications Program.
Amends the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to: (1) revise certain commercial license requirements; (2) repeal restrictions pertaining to foreign ownership of commercial licensees; and (3) grant firearms and arrest authority to employees of NRC licensees.