The president issues four orders designed to accelerate commercial reactor development and reform the Nuclear Regulatory Agency.
President Donald Trump on May 23 signed four executive orders aimed at kindling an “American nuclear renaissance” by cutting regulations in the industry and fast-tracking new licenses for reactors and power plants.
The executive orders are related to accelerating commercial nuclear energy development, with the industry on the cusp of numerous breakthroughs, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority’s May 20 announcement that it had submitted a permit to install the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR.
The orders require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to complete license reviews within 18 months, provide federal land for reactor development, and streamline regulations and permitting processes.
The United States is the world’s largest generator and consumer of nuclear energy, with 94 nuclear reactors in 55 power plants, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration calculates generated 18.6 percent of its electricity in 2023.
However, most reactors were built between 1970–1990 and average more than 40 years in service. The only new one to come online in the United States since 2016 is Vogtle’s fourth reactor in Georgia, $16 billion over budget and six years behind schedule.
Safe and Secure Energy
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios told reporters that between 1950–1980, more than 100 nuclear generators were built in the United States.
“However,” he said, “in the last 30 years, we started and built only two decommissioned commercial reactors across the country, stepped back from nuclear R&D, and abandoned hopes of nuclear energy powering a bright future.”
With the advent of 21st-century innovations in nuclear reactors, such as SMRs, industry groups such as the Nuclear Innovation Alliance say the nation’s regulatory and permitting processes are obsolete.
“America’s great innovators and entrepreneurs have run into brick walls when it comes to nuclear technology,” Kratsios said, calling the president’s executive initiatives a “historic action to ensure America’s energy dominance and provide affordable, reliable, safe, and secure energy to the American people.
“With these actions,” he added, “President Trump is telling the world that America will build again, and the American nuclear renaissance can begin.”
By John Haughey
