I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3485 
To establish an international initiative to support the global deployment 
of civil nuclear technologies, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 18, 2023 
Mr. DONALDS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To establish an international initiative to support the global 
deployment of civil nuclear technologies, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Avoid Our Adversaries 
and Buy American Nuclear Act’’. 
SEC. 2. INTERNATIONAL CIVIL NUCLEAR PROGRAM SUP-
PORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in 
coordination with the Secretary, shall launch an inter-
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national initiative (referred to in this section as the ‘‘ini-
tiative’’) to provide financial assistance to, and facilitate 
the building of technical capacities by, in accordance with 
this section, embarking civil nuclear nations for activities 
relating to the development of civil nuclear energy pro-
grams. 
(b) FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the initia-
tive, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the 
Secretary, may award grants of financial assistance 
to embarking civil nuclear nations in accordance 
with this subsection— 
(A) for activities relating to the develop-
ment of civil nuclear energy programs; and 
(B) to facilitate the building of technical 
capacities for those activities. 
(2) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant of finan-
cial assistance under paragraph (1) shall be not 
more than $5,500,000. 
(3) LIMITATIONS.—The Secretary of State, in 
coordination with the Secretary, may award— 
(A) not more than 1 grant of financial as-
sistance under paragraph (1) to any 1 embark-
ing civil nuclear nation each fiscal year; and 
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(B) not more than a total of 5 grants of 
financial assistance under paragraph (1) to any 
1 embarking civil nuclear nation. 
(c) SENIOR ADVISORS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the initia-
tive, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the 
Secretary, may provide financial assistance to an 
embarking civil nuclear nation for the purpose of 
contracting with a U.S. nuclear energy company to 
hire 1 or more senior advisors to assist the embark-
ing civil nuclear nation in establishing a civil nuclear 
program. 
(2) REQUIREMENT.—A senior advisor described 
in paragraph (1) shall have relevant experience and 
qualifications to advise the embarking civil nuclear 
nation on, and facilitate on behalf of the embarking 
civil nuclear nation, 1 or more of the following ac-
tivities: 
(A) The development of financing relation-
ships. 
(B) The development of a standardized fi-
nancing and project management framework for 
the construction of nuclear power plants. 
(C) The development of a standardized li-
censing framework for— 
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(i) light water civil nuclear tech-
nologies; and 
(ii) non-light water civil nuclear tech-
nologies and advanced nuclear reactors. 
(D) The identification of qualified organi-
zations and service providers. 
(E) The identification of funds to support 
payment for services required to develop a civil 
nuclear program. 
(F) Market analysis. 
(G) The identification of the safety, secu-
rity, safeguards, and nuclear governance re-
quired for a civil nuclear program. 
(H) Risk allocation, risk management, and 
nuclear liability. 
(I) Technical assessments of nuclear reac-
tors and technologies. 
(J) The identification of actions necessary 
to participate in a global nuclear liability re-
gime based on the Convention on Supple-
mentary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, 
with Annex, done at Vienna September 12, 
1997 (TIAS 15–415). 
(K) Stakeholder engagement. 
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(L) Management of spent nuclear fuel and 
nuclear waste. 
(M) Any other major activities to support 
the establishment of a civil nuclear program, 
such as the establishment of export, financing, 
construction, training, operations, and edu-
cation requirements. 
(3) 
CLARIFICATION.—Financial 
assistance 
under this subsection may be provided to an em-
barking civil nuclear nation in addition to any finan-
cial assistance provided to that embarking civil nu-
clear nation under subsection (b). 
(d) LIMITATION
ON ASSISTANCE
TO EMBARKING 
CIVIL NUCLEAR NATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Offices of the In-
spectors General for the Department of State and the De-
partment of Energy shall coordinate— 
(1) to establish and submit to the appropriate 
committees of Congress a joint strategic plan to con-
duct comprehensive oversight of activities authorized 
under this section to prevent fraud, waste, and 
abuse; and 
(2) to engage in independent and effective over-
sight of activities authorized under this section 
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through joint or individual audits, inspections, inves-
tigations, or evaluations. 
(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) ADVANCED NUCLEAR REACTOR.—The term 
‘‘advanced nuclear reactor’’ means— 
(A) a nuclear fission reactor, including a 
prototype plant (as defined in sections 50.2 and 
52.1 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations 
(or successor regulations)), with significant im-
provements compared to reactors operating on 
October 19, 2016, including improvements such 
as— 
(i) additional inherent safety features; 
(ii) lower waste yields; 
(iii) improved fuel and material per-
formance; 
(iv) increased tolerance to loss of fuel 
cooling; 
(v) enhanced reliability or improved 
resilience; 
(vi) increased proliferation resistance; 
(vii) increased thermal efficiency; 
(viii) reduced consumption of cooling 
water and other environmental impacts; 
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(ix) the ability to integrate into elec-
tric applications and nonelectric applica-
tions; 
(x) modular sizes to allow for deploy-
ment that corresponds with the demand 
for electricity or process heat; and 
(xi) operational flexibility to respond 
to changes in demand for electricity or 
process heat and to complement integra-
tion with intermittent renewable energy or 
energy storage; 
(B) a fusion reactor; and 
(C) a radioisotope power system that uti-
lizes heat from radioactive decay to generate 
energy. 
(2) CIVIL NUCLEAR.—The term ‘‘civil nuclear’’ 
means activities relating to— 
(A) nuclear plant construction; 
(B) nuclear fuel services; 
(C) nuclear energy financing; 
(D) nuclear plant operations; 
(E) nuclear plant regulation; 
(F) nuclear medicine; 
(G) nuclear safety; 
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(H) community engagement in areas in 
reasonable proximity to nuclear sites; 
(I) infrastructure support for nuclear en-
ergy; 
(J) nuclear plant decommissioning; 
(K) nuclear liability; 
(L) safe storage and safe disposal of spent 
nuclear fuel; 
(M) environmental safeguards; 
(N) nuclear nonproliferation and security; 
and 
(O) technology related to the matters de-
scribed in subparagraphs (A) through (N). 
(3) EMBARKING CIVIL NUCLEAR NATION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘embarking 
civil nuclear nation’’ means a country that— 
(i) does not have a civil nuclear en-
ergy program; 
(ii) is in the process of developing or 
expanding a civil nuclear energy program, 
including safeguards and a legal and regu-
latory framework, for— 
(I) nuclear safety; 
(II) nuclear security; 
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(III) radioactive waste manage-
ment; 
(IV) civil nuclear energy; 
(V) environmental safeguards; 
(VI) community engagement in 
areas in reasonable proximity to nu-
clear sites; 
(VII) nuclear liability; or 
(VIII) advanced nuclear reactor 
licensing; 
(iii) is in the process of selecting, de-
veloping, constructing, or utilizing ad-
vanced light water reactors, advanced nu-
clear reactors, or advanced civil nuclear 
technologies; or 
(iv) had an annual per capita gross 
domestic product of not more than 
$28,000 in 2020. 
(B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘embarking 
civil nuclear nation’’ does not include— 
(i) the People’s Republic of China; 
(ii) the Russian Federation; 
(iii) the Republic of Belarus; 
(iv) the Islamic Republic of Iran; 
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(v) the Democratic People’s Republic 
of Korea; 
(vi) the Republic of Cuba; 
(vii) the Bolivarian Republic of Ven-
ezuela; 
(viii) the Syrian Arab Republic; 
(ix) Burma; or 
(x) any other country— 
(I) the property or interests in 
property of the government of which 
are blocked pursuant to the Inter-
national Emergency Economic Powers 
Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); or 
(II) the government of which the 
Secretary of State has determined has 
repeatedly provided support for acts 
of international terrorism for purposes 
of— 
(aa) section 620A(a) of the 
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 
(22 U.S.C. 2371(a)); 
(bb) section 40(d) of the 
Arms Export Control Act (22 
U.S.C. 2780(d)); 
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(cc) section 1754(c)(1)(A)(i) 
of the Export Control Reform 
Act 
of 
2018 
(50 
U.S.C. 
4813(c)(1)(A)(i)); or 
(dd) any other relevant pro-
vision of law. 
(4) SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL.—The term ‘‘spent 
nuclear fuel’’ has the meaning given the term in sec-
tion 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 
U.S.C. 10101). 
(5) U.S. NUCLEAR
ENERGY
COMPANY.—The 
term ‘‘U.S. nuclear energy company’’ means a com-
pany that— 
(A) is organized under the laws of, or oth-
erwise subject to the jurisdiction of, the United 
States; and 
(B) is involved in the nuclear energy indus-
try. 
Æ 
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