Nuclear energy has become an attractive option for the administration to power its efforts to beat China in the AI race. The carbon-free resource is considered one of the most reliable sources of energy today, with a capacity factor of 92.3%. This means a nuclear power plant, on average, can generate its maximum capacity 92.3% of the time. 

Trump sought to clear the way for developing new nuclear energy last spring, calling for overhauling and streamlining regulatory processes for new nuclear projects, accelerating testing of advanced projects such as small modular reactors, and boosting domestic mining and enrichment of uranium. 

These executive orders have been celebrated and welcomed across the industry, with many analysts and developers pointing to the actions as the catalyst for increased development. 

While nuclear energy is emerging from decades of political stagnation with bipartisan support, concerns about cost, timeline, and regulatory delays still cloud its long-term future. 

“It’s a great step forward, but there’s a lot more work to be done,” Rowen Price, senior policy adviser for the nuclear energy, climate, and energy program at Third Way, told the Washington Examiner. 

So, what has been done so far, and what does the administration still need to deliver on to reach the president’s goals for scaling up domestic capacity? 

Developing advanced reactors 

One of the most ambitious targets set via the executive orders last spring was to have three small test reactors built by Independence Day this summer. 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright first announced last June that the agency would have three reactors hit that goal and reach criticality status. Reaching criticality means a reactor is perfectly stable and can produce power. It doesn’t mean the reactor is fully operational and producing electricity, however.  

Ten companies and 11 projects were ultimately selected to participate in the agency’s reactor pilot program focused on building the test reactors. 

The program leverages the Energy Department’s authority to approve nuclear reactor authorizations for research, development, and demonstration. In response to the president’s orders, the agency revised its program to cut unnecessary steps, shrinking its approval process to 11 steps from 17. 

The idea is that by streamlining the Energy Department’s authority and approval process for test reactors, the agency will be able to inform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to accelerate federal approvals for these SMRs and microreactors to operate commercially. 

As of May, three of the selected projects had secured a Final Documented Safety Analysis, keeping them on track to hit the July Fourth deadline. 

Aalo Atomics co-founder and CEO Matt Loszak confirmed to the Washington Examiner that its reactor is one of these and that the company plans to move forward with NRC commercial licensing applications later this year.  

Jordan Bramble, the co-founder and CEO of Antares Nuclear, also recently revealed that his team expects to hit criticality by July Fourth, just nine months after entering the program. 

“Regulatory pathways that once lasted decades are compressing to months,” he wrote for the National Interest. “These are real initiatives, on real timelines, evolving from proof of concept to proof of capability.”

To further support the program and advanced reactor developers, the Department of Energy is also utilizing the nation’s national labs to provide environments for companies to test their experimental designs and gather performance data.

Federal regulator reforms 

Trump also targeted the NRC with the executive orders last year, focusing on its licensing timeline and agency culture. The president specifically called on the NRC to make decisions on reactor licenses within 18 months, prioritize reactor safety, and promote the adoption of nuclear technology.

Over the following months, the agency lost dozens of employees, including several members of its senior leadership team and two commissioners. 

The shake-ups sparked concerns, even among staunch nuclear energy advocates, over whether the agency would have enough staff to meet the ambitious timelines without sacrificing safety standards. 

The Trump administration has insisted that while the organization is undergoing a restructuring, the agency will “almost certainly” grow in the coming years. 

In response to the executive order, the NRC is planning an internal reorganization that will create a new office for advanced reactor licensing and reduce the scale of the agency’s oversight programs to narrow its focus on what is most significant for safety during inspections. 

The NRC has finalized and issued several new rules to streamline its approval process, including rescinding rules that it viewed as inconsistent with or duplicative of legal requirements. 

The agency is also developing rules on disposing of low-level waste, radiation exposure, and the export of nuclear reactor equipment and materials.  

Additionally, federal regulators completed the fastest-ever license renewal review for a nuclear plant in under 12 months. 

While the NRC is moving fast, Chairman Ho K. Nieh insists the agency isn’t rushing. 

“We are not rushing our work,” he told reporters earlier in the week. “This is not new stuff that we’re making up. It’s things that have been talked about, and a regulatory basis has been developed over a decade now. We just have the momentum and the catalyst to move forward on these rules.”

Building on federal lands 

Another executive order called for changes to energy and defense regulations to accelerate the deployment of nuclear reactors on federally owned land that would support “critical defense facilities and AI data centers.” 

It ordered the Pentagon to deploy a nuclear reactor, regulated by the U.S. Army, at a domestic military base or installation by the end of September 2028.

To meet this target, the U.S. launched a next-generation program in October, known as the Janus Program. This program plans to build commercial microreactors that can typically produce up to 50 megawatts of energy. By November, the Army had selected nine bases where these microreactors could be deployed. 

The Air Force is planning to build its first microreactor at the Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, in tandem with advanced nuclear firm Oklo. This microreactor isn’t expected to be operational until 2027. 

The Air Force also said last month that it selected three companies to develop and operate a separate microreactor at one of its installations, with operations expected by 2030. 

Using federal funds

Another provision in the executive orders called for the industry to facilitate 5 gigawatts of power uprate to existing reactors and have 10 new large reactors under construction by 2030. 

To achieve these goals, Trump called on the Energy Department to utilize its Loan Programs Office, which has since been renamed the Energy Dominance Financing Office. 

As of April, the agency had only finalized one new loan agreement for a nuclear energy project. This deal, closed in November of last year, provides up to $1 billion to Constellation Energy to restart the shuttered Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania. The Trump administration has also continued to issue disbursements of up to $1.52 billion in loans to Holtec to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, a deal finalized under former President Joe Biden. 

Adam Stein, director of nuclear energy innovation at the Breakthrough Institute, told the Washington Examiner that he’s not surprised there haven’t been other announcements about EDF funding, given the data requirement even to apply for a loan. 

Traditionally, the agency has used its loan authority to support commercial development projects that are not first-of-a-kind and have years of testing data supporting their operations, Stein said. That’s not the case for SMRs and other advanced reactors. 

“It’s very challenging for a new design to get a loan,” he said. “Even a project that was moving from the new reactor pilot program, if they participate in that for the last 18 months or so and they reach criticality by the Fourth of July … they would not have enough data to then get a loan from EDF to build their first commercial plant.”  

Price described the current selection processes at EDF as too “risk-averse,” saying it might be the only “domestic focus tool” the U.S. has to take initial lending risks for the industry. 

“We’ve really seen EDF only do upgrades and restarts, and those are great,” she told the Washington Examiner. “But it’s really frustrating to see, even despite a callout in one of the executive orders.”

Addressing nuclear fuel 

To further shore up the nuclear energy industry, the Trump administration has also taken steps to increase domestic access to necessary fuel. 

One avenue the Energy Department has taken is exploring fuel recycling and reprocessing. In February of this year, the agency awarded $19 million to five U.S. companies to research and develop recycling technologies for nuclear fuel. 

The agency has since asked those in the private sector to submit proposals to design, construct, and operate nuclear fuel recycling and processing facilities. 

Earlier this year, the Energy Department also announced $2.7 billion in funding to strengthen domestic uranium enrichment over the next 10 years. 

“What I see is sort of an industry-wide push to get this right, you know, it’s very holistic, and the fuel fits into that,” Emmet Penney, a senior fellow with the Foundation for American Innovation, told the Washington Examiner. “I think this is the thing that I’ve noticed, is that this is a very forward-looking way to try to start the nuclear renaissance, not just focusing all in on the reactors.” 

Some analysts have pointed out that the government could still do more to ramp up domestic nuclear fuel supplies, such as establishing a “bank” for advanced reactor fuel, such as High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium. 

Currently, only one company in the U.S. produces HALEU.

Are we on track for 2050?

As the Trump administration has taken these steps to bolster the nuclear energy industry, one question remains: 

Has enough been done to keep the U.S. on track to expand domestic nuclear energy capacity from 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050? 

For many in the industry, it’s too soon to tell. 

“The track to 2050 is literally decades away,” Stein said. “And so there’s a lot of uncertainty on exactly how things are going to go between now and then.” 

Earlier in the week, NRC Chairman Nieh declined to speculate on whether the U.S. could deliver on that timeline, instead telling the Washington Examiner that he believed the agency was on track to have a licensing framework in place “to support commercial delivery of facilities across the entire nuclear life cycle.” 

Once the administration begins ramping up its use of federal loans for large reactors, though, Penney said he expects significant progress and more state governments to step up to the plate to usher in new capacity. 

NUCLEAR ENERGY REVIVAL FUELED BY GROWING EMBRACE ON THE LEFT

“It’s a lot harder to hit that number if you’re only building SMRs, because you need to build a ton of SMRs,” he said. 

“I’m very excited for whatever announcements are going to come out of the EDF,” Penney added. “I think those are going to be really, really meaningful, and I think, to be honest, the ‘missing piece’. It’s not going to be up to the Trump administration; it’s going to be up to individual state governments.”