Washington may finally be on the verge of doing something smart.
After decades of handwringing over what to do with America’s stockpile of Cold War plutonium, policymakers are talking about turning it into affordable, reliable, American-made electricity. It’s an idea that’s both practical and patriotic, one that transforms a liability into a powerful energy asset.
Instead of burying plutonium and pretending it has disappeared, we can put it to work. With advanced fast reactors, like those being developed by private American innovators, stored fuel will be processed into new reactor fuel. This is energy dominance in action, delivering more domestic energy, more reliable 24/7 power, and downward pressure on electricity costs for families and industry. Naturally, critics like Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and the professional panic crowd in Washington don’t see it that way. They’re claiming it “sets a dangerous precedent” that might “spread nuclear technology.”
That’s pure politics. Turning plutonium into electricity does not expand a stockpile; it eliminates one. By reprocessing it into fuel and fissioning it, we permanently eliminate it as weapons material. That’s not a risk — it’s a solution. For decades, the loudest voices on the Left said they wanted to eliminate nuclear weapons and lower emissions. Well, congratulations, this policy does both. So why the outrage?
Because it solves their so-called problem, and it gives President Donald Trump a clear win on domestic energy and national security.
By contrast, the “Dilute and Dispose” scheme now being pushed by entrenched government bureaucrats is a half-century boondoggle dressed up as a solution. It could cost taxpayers about $20 billion, drag on for decades, and still leave every gram of plutonium intact, only hidden underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. That is not environmental stewardship; it’s irresponsible procrastination at scale.
Here is what the new proposal means in practice:
A closed fuel cycle uses well-understood chemistry to separate usable material that can be shaped into fuel for fast reactors. Those reactors extract many times more energy from the same atoms than today’s light water fleet. The end state is smaller in volume, less radiotoxic over the long run, and easier to manage. U.S. labs and industry have demonstrated the core steps for generations, and our engineers know how to do it safely and repeatably. Put simply, we can turn a guarded stockpile that costs money into baseload power that saves money.
The scientific truth is that dealing with plutonium isn’t nearly as complicated as bureaucrats and activists make it sound. It isn’t some mysterious, unmanageable material out of a 1950s sci-fi movie.
Our national labs at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, have handled it safely for generations. America wrote the book on nuclear safeguards. What is dangerous is the political cowardice that treats plutonium as dangerous waste instead of the energy treasure it really is. Trump’s 2025 executive order to reinvigorate the nuclear industrial base supports an approach that consumes what is now labeled a liability by putting it to good use. The only way to eliminate weapons-grade material is to fission it. That is exactly what next-generation reactors will do. Converting stockpiled material to fuel is finite; no one is advocating making more, yet it can provide a bridge supply for the advanced reactor industry as it scales.
That bridge would power new electric generation in the near term and accelerate the development of new fuels and advanced reactors for the long term. It is a triumph of innovation over inertia. If that sounds too good to be true, it is only because Washington has forgotten what competence looks like.
Wind and solar may make good campaign slogans, but they cannot power a steel mill or a data center overnight. Nuclear can. Repurposed plutonium can.
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Yet next-generation nuclear still faces delays, hearings, and hysteria from the same crowd that would rather waste billions on hole-digging than admit private industry outsmarted them. It is time to stop letting Markey’s professional panic caucus dictate bad energy policy. This country deserves a rational approach rooted in science and results, not fearmongering.
Turning a Cold War relic into American kilowatts is not just smart, it is patriotic, profitable, and long overdue. If we are serious about energy security, nonproliferation, and economic growth, we should fire up the reactors, fission the plutonium, and let competence — not dysfunction — power America.
Jason Isaac is the founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute. He previously served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives.
