This new paper assesses opportunities for enhancing US-Republic of Korea civil nuclear cooperation. Written by Jackie Toth of New Hill Consulting, the paper summarizes key conclusions from a November 2025 workshop. The report is the latest installment in EIRP’s US-Korea Energy Series, edited by Paul Saunders.
As the Trump administration works to accelerate domestic deployment of nuclear energy, EIRP and the Korea Atomic Industrial Forum convened an off-the-record discussion to assess opportunities and challenges for U.S.-South Korea cooperation in the United States and in third countries. KAIF represents about five hundred firms in South Korea’s nuclear sector. EIRP Senior Advisor Paul Saunders moderated the session, which took place in Washington on November 20, 2025.
The Working Group on Nuclear Energy Dominance, co-sponsored by EIRP and the Center for the National Interest, proposes a slate of new policies to support the Trump administration’s goals to expand nuclear energy in the United States as well as U.S. nuclear energy exports.
In Harvard University’s Russia Matters, Paul Saunders argues that the combination of Western bans on importing Russian oil with the oil price cap have produced a massive oil windfall for China. Competing with Moscow and Beijing simultaneously will require greater sophistication in U.S. policy.
The collision between geopolitics, energy, and technology may be a defining aspect of the international system in the 2020s. Even as the United States and its allies work to diversify their supply chains to avoid over-dependence on geopolitical competitors, they are in simultaneous cooperation and competition with one another. The session explored opportunities for deeper cooperation with U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region in energy and energy-related technologies, including electric vehicles and batteries, as well as underlying tensions.
On May 29, 2024, Energy Innovation Reform Project sponsored an online discussion of China’s dominant position in electric vehicle battery markets and opportunities for U.S.-South Korea cooperation. EIRP senior advisor Paul Saunders moderated the session, which included remarks by the University of Georgia’s David Gattie and Hanyang University’s Younkyoo Kim. Each of the speakers has contributed working papers to EIRP’s U.S.-Korea Energy Series.
In Real Clear Energy, Bracewell attorney Jeff Holmstead, a former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air and Radiation Office from 2001 to 2005, and EIRP CEO Samuel Thernstrom argue that “the Clean Air Act’s authority over power plant greenhouse gas emissions is weak, contested, and highly inefficient” and that a legislated federal clean energy standard would be more lasting and effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions than continuing efforts at regulation. And, they suggest, if a new law allowed states to choose between a CES or existing policies, it could win political support.
In The Washington Times, EIRP Senior Advisor Paul Saunders, who is also President of the Center for the National Interest, argues that after decades of concern over Europe’s energy dependence on Russia, Washington would do well to turn its attention to Moscow’s new energy partners, including not only its oil and gas customers, but also the governments seeking Russian help to develop nuclear energy and to develop energy-related mining projects.
Inside EPA, a leading trade publication monitoring environmental policy and the Environmental Protection Agency, published an extensive report on EIRP CEO Samuel Thernstrom’s paper, “Clean Energy Standards: Securing the Future of the Electric Power Sector.” Inside EPA is available at https://insideepa.com/; full text reprinted with permission.
EIRP CEO Samuel Thernstrom argues that the Biden administration’s new EPA power plant rules share fundamental characteristics with Obama administration rules struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court and will likely lose in court as well. In his op-ed, “If EPA’s latest power plant rules seem familiar, don’t get fooled again!,” Thernstrom argues that the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits will be insufficient to decarbonize America’s power sector without a clear regulatory (and deregulatory) framework. He concludes that a well-designed clean energy standard would provide an essential complement to the IRA.
