More nuclear construction is needed for US allies as the West seeks to reduce the influence of state-run companies from China and Russia in the global nuclear market, the head of the country’s main nuclear lobby group said.

Maria Korsnick, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute, said in an interview with Scott Amyx on YouTube that China and Russia are aggressively broadening their geopolitical leverage with nuclear technology export sales.

“For US companies to succeed abroad, international customers expect US technologies to be deployed here at home,” she said.

“It is thus a national security imperative to accelerate domestic and international deployments of innovative US technologies.”