Amy Roma on Advanced Nuclear: Licensing, Deal Structures and the Global Race to Build

Orrick partner Amy Roma joined host Dominique Cooper on UCAN Power’s Advanced Nuclear podcast to talk about what it takes to build a reactor today – from licensing and ownership, nuclear at sea and in space, global competition and the workforce needed to build it all.

The 5 takeaways:

1. Choosing an NRC licensing framework is a strategic business decision.

Developers now choose among four pathways – Part 50, Part 52, the newly amended Part 53, and the new Part 57 for micro-reactors – with real trade-offs in flexibility, timing and certainty. Many still default to Part 50 simply because, Amy says, "everybody's afraid to go through the first-of-a-kind process." The right choice depends on technology and risk appetite.

2. Utilities are not the default owner-operator of new nuclear.

"None of them built their nuclear power plants," Amy says. Projects like Kairos, TerraPower and X-energy/Dow instead bring in vendors, industrial end users and hyperscalers to fill the roles utilities once held, and data center operators are accelerating the shift through offtake agreements, plant restarts and direct investment in new builds. "The model is continuously evolving," says Amy.

3. Nuclear at sea and in space is a huge, still untapped opportunity.

Maritime deployment is closer than many assume: the NRC has licensed floating plants before and, per Amy, "wouldn't bat an eyelash" at doing so again. Space is a longer runway – under current law, "the NRC does not have jurisdiction in space,” and recent executive actions on nuclear-powered space missions don't resolve who regulates a commercial space reactor at each stage, from manufacturing to disposal.

4. The U.S. is behind China, and the gap is about execution.

China brings roughly ten reactors online per year with a secured domestic supply chain; U.S. companies are still working through basic sourcing – Amy recounts a client whose RFP for a single valve went to 100 suppliers and drew zero responses. Building one first-of-a-kind reactor doesn’t close that gap; building the second, third and tenth does, since fleets of similar reactors deliver predictable costs and timelines with each successive unit.

5. Workforce development is a bottleneck that industry growth is worsening, not solving.

As the sector scales, much of the hiring pool is drawn from the NRC and other companies already in the space – a dynamic that could limit how fast projects can staff up and deploy. Amy’s advice to new entrants: commit to an actual site to build a local pipeline through nearby universities, vocational programs and unions.