By Andrew Follett
Sunday, May 31, 2026
The Trump administration issued four executive orders last May to cut red tape and create a
faster nuclear regulatory approval process. The result was the most productive
year in the modern history of nuclear power, according to the Department of Energy.
In twelve months, the U.S. has seen the first
non-light-water reactor construction permits and groundbreakings in decades,
multiple small modular reactor (SMR) design approvals, major funding
commitments, the restart of long-dormant plants and fuel cycle activities, new
testing infrastructure, and parallel regulatory pathways that invested billions
into the sector.
The core deregulation-focused order reformed the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) to cut red tape, set strict licensing deadlines of
a maximum of 18 months for new reactors, capped regulatory fees, and created expedited pathways for designs already tested by the
Department of Energy or Department of Defense. Companion orders addressed DOE
reactor testing reforms and revised the agency’s authorization process to
reduce red tape while maintaining safety.
DOE launched the Reactor Pilot Program shortly after the
orders, creating a streamlined DOE pathway outside traditional NRC bottlenecks
for advanced reactor demonstrations. It selected 11 projects, with three already securing Final Documented Safety Analyses that will
reach criticality, the state in which a nuclear chain reaction becomes
self-sustaining, by July 4 of this year. This is a remarkable achievement.
“The idea of selecting eleven projects and aiming to have
three operating by July 2026 is incredibly fast by historical standards. It
reflects a major shift in philosophy,” Jeff Terry, vice
provost for research at the Illinois Institute of Technology and an expert
on nuclear energy systems, told National Review. “Instead of requiring every
possible question to be answered before anything gets built, regulators and the
Department of Energy are now much more willing to test designs in stages and
learn from actual operation.”
In 2025, prior to Trump’s order, the NRC got 90 percent
of its budget from fees on the nuclear industry and ran up the bill by charging
power plants $318 per hour for staff time.
“When an agency gets most of its funding by billing the
industry hourly, there’s naturally less pressure to streamline reviews,” Terry
continued highlighting the previous incentive structure. “Longer reviews
support larger staffs and bigger budgets. Over time, that can create a system
where process becomes the priority instead of speed or efficiency. When coupled
with politicized NRC commissions, bad choices were made.”
Overall, America will add enough nuclear energy
production to power 2 million homes by 2027 and 4 million by 2029, according to the Department of Energy. Six reactors at
Hatch, Vogtle, and Farley plants are already pursuing 345 MW of combined
uprates, alongside major Southern Company loans. Much of this will come from restarting the Palisades and Crane reactors.
“Suddenly, existing nuclear plants look incredibly
valuable again because they already have grid connections, trained operators,
and large amounts of carbon-free generation,” Terry stated. “Effectively, they
began to sell something more valuable than kWhs. The UPRISE goal of adding 2.5
gigawatts by 2027 is ambitious, but I think it’s achievable if most of that
capacity comes from uprates and restarting relatively recent shutdowns. Uprates
are actually one of the easiest ways to add nuclear capacity because you’re
improving equipment at plants that already exist rather than building entirely
new reactors. Restarts are harder, but Palisades showed it can be done if the
plant hasn’t deteriorated too far and the economics are strong enough.”
A major $40 billion U.S.-Japan partnership targets 2.5
million homes powered by Small Modular Reactors in Tennessee and Alabama. The
advanced nuclear company NuScale finally received NRC approval for its upgraded
SMR design after a decade of red tape and regulatory gridlock. America
has inked major export deals selling the technology too. For example, a Poland
Westinghouse/Bechtel contract of more than $25 billion, Lithuania SMR
assessment, and Latin America and Indo-Pacific cooperation with $56 billion in
announced energy deals.
TerraPower’s Natrium fast reactor received the first-ever NRC construction permit for a
commercial non-light-water reactor in March 2026 and broke ground in April.
Dow/X-energy Xe-100 permit review is underway. Kairos Power started nuclear
construction on Hermes in May 2025 and broke ground on Hermes 2 in April 2026,
including a Google partnership.
“Most SMRs that have advanced so far, like NuScale or the
BWRX-300, still rely on familiar light-water reactor technology” Terry
continued. “That makes them easier for regulators and utilities to understand
because the industry already has decades of operating experience with
water-cooled reactors. Natrium is different. It uses liquid sodium as a coolant
and operates as a fast reactor, which changes the entire physics and
engineering profile.”
The upside is enormous. Fast reactors can use fuel more
efficiently, potentially reduce certain types of nuclear waste, and operate at
lower pressure than water-cooled systems. Natrium also includes molten-salt
energy storage, which means it can ramp electrical output to support
renewable-heavy grids without constantly changing reactor power levels.
The DOE granted approval for Radiant Industries’ Kaleidos nuclear
microreactor, which would be the world’s first mass-produced microreactor,
making it possible to build and bring nuclear facilities online much more
quickly. Microreactors could be constructed in a factory and deployed to remote
locations to provide reliable power, much like diesel generators. This
approval, the first of its kind under the DOE’s new Authorization Pathway for Nuclear Facilities, represents a
significant milestone in the new era of faster and more accessible nuclear
power deployment begun by the White House last year.
Brand new reactor designs will be subjected to full-power tests, granted to the Idaho
National Laboratory’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME)
facility. The DOME microreactor test bed opened at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in April, the
world’s first such facility. The co-located Nuclear Energy Launch Pad was established in March to support broader iterative
testing on federal and non-federal lands, with initial company selections and
ongoing applications.
“For years, one of the biggest problems in U.S. nuclear
development was that even very small experimental reactors had to navigate a
system designed for massive commercial power plants,” Terry continued. “That
made testing slow and extremely expensive. What these new programs do is remove
a lot of that friction. Developers can use pre-approved sites, existing
infrastructure, and DOE oversight to validate designs much more quickly.
Instead of spending ten years trying to get permission to build something, companies
can move into demonstration much earlier.”
There’s also been strong progress on microreactors for
military bases, with the mobile microreactor of Pele mobile microreactor advancing to the point of delivering fuel. That’s in
addition to the DOD identifying nine potential Army installations and major
nuclear projects at Eielson AFB and Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations
programs moving forward in April.
Regulatory approval was issued for nuclear-powered AI
data centers on federal lands at INL and Oak Ridge, leveraging existing assets
for rapid deployment. Additional executive action on space nuclear power supports reactors on the Moon by 2030.
These changes have enabled quicker movement from concept
to testing/construction compared to prior decades of delays while demonstrating
that deregulation directly translated into real construction activity and
first-of-a-kind deployments.
This despite massive obstructive activity from Democrats,
which I previously documented. Each existing U.S. nuclear
plant spends an estimated $4.2 million annually just meeting
government-paperwork requirements and another $4.4 million to pay
government-mandated security staff, according to a 2017 American Action Forum report.
Biden-era nuclear bureaucracy proposed nuclear
regulations that were mathematically impossible to meet by using assumptions
that seemed intentionally designed to prevent the development of new
reactors. It took an incredible 43 years to get approval and start building one of
America’s newest nuclear reactors at Watts Barr in Tennessee.
“Right now, the U.S. has momentum in licensing reform,
fuel supply, restarts, and advanced reactor development. But momentum alone
isn’t enough,” Terry noted. The real test is whether companies can move from
isolated demonstrations to steady, repeatable deployment.”
The actions have revitalized U.S. nuclear energy through
deregulation, streamlined processes, and accelerated deployment.
In one year, Trump’s deregulation orders have ignited
America’s most productive nuclear era in modern history. By slashing red tape,
imposing hard deadlines, and shifting from endless paperwork to real-world
testing, the U.S. has moved from decades of paralysis to a surge of new
permits, groundbreaking construction, reactor restarts, and billions in private
investment, delivering the clean, reliable power the country actually needs.
Nuclear momentum is no longer a slogan; it’s measurable
gigawatts coming online. The real test now is whether this burst of speed
becomes the new normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment