President Donald Trump, surrounded by Cabinet officials and representatives of the U.S. nuclear industry, signed five executive orders on May 23 that he believes will usher in a nuclear energy renaissance in the United States and restore “gold standard science” in federal decision making.
Regulatory overkill has been identified as the chief reason (along with media-driven fear) that the U.S. has surrendered its once-wide lead in nuclear energy technology. Since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission replaced the Atomic Energy Commission in 1975, it has snubbed its nose at President Eisenhower’s vision for the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
The NRC reforms terrify former NRC chair (under President Obama) Allison Macfarlane. In a lengthy rant, Macfarlane spoke of the horrors of the 2011 Fukushima tsunami-related incident, citing the temporary evacuations and (short-term) disruptions while ignoring the fact nobody died from radiation sickness or that Japan is reopening its nuclear power plants.
Under Macfarlane and others who headed up the NRC, the Idaho National Laboratory stopped constructing and testing new reactor designs. Prior to 1978, the U.S. had authorized construction of 133 civilian nuclear reactors at 81 powerplant sites. Since that date, only two NRC-authorized reactors have entered commercial operation.
Last year, INL announced plans to build two new reactor and conduct one reactor experiment at its desert site, including the MARVEL microreactor – the first new reactor tested by INL in half a century. Since Trump took office in January, INL has also debuted a new molten salt test loop to support development of molten salt advanced reactors.
The NRC has used its hourly rate for processing license applications to run up costs and frustrate applicants. Rather than promote development of safe, abundant nuclear energy, their goal was to focus on remote, hypothetical risks with little regard for domestic and geopolitical costs.
Their rules, cheered by nuclear energy opponents, utilize unscientific safety models that posit there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure. Macfarlane is but one former NRC leader who believed the mission was (in effect) to prevent the spread of nuclear energy technology.
One Trump executive order calls for sweeping reforms to the NRC’s structure, personnel, regulations, and basic operations to ensure America’s dominance in the global nuclear energy market. People today recognize that the need for reliable, affordable energy far outweighs the minimal risks from most new reactor designs.
The President’s nuclear energy initiative also charges the Departments of Energy and Defense by with expediting the development and deployment of new advanced design reactors. Trump pointed out that the eutrophication of the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle infrastructure has left America heavily dependent on foreign countries for uranium ore as well as uranium enrichment and conversion services.
Since the U.S. designed and built the first Generation IV reactor for commercial use, the federal government has effective throttled domestic development of advanced reactors by a plethora of companies eager to bring America back to nuclear energy dominance. The order calls for DOD to submit a plan for utilizing advanced reactors and spent nuclear fuel at military installations.
On the commercial side, Energy Secretary Chris Wright is empowered to authorize the design, construction, and operation of privately funded advanced nuclear reactor technologies at DOE sites. The goal is to have at least one advanced nuclear reactor operating within 30 months.
The massive overhaul also mandates the DOE to complete testing and approval of new advanced reactor designs within 2 years after submission of a substantially complete application. Secretary Wright is to create a pilot program for reactor construction and operation outside the National Laboratories that includes at least three reactors and to expedite or eliminate reviews for authorizations, permits, approvals, leases, and other activities to remove regulatory roadblocks.
A fourth order focuses on expanding domestic uranium conversion capacity and enrichment capabilities sufficient to meet projected civilian and defense reactor needs for low-enriched uranium (LEU), high-enriched uranium (HEU), and high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), subject to retention of stockpiles needed for tritium production, naval propulsion, and nuclear weapons.
As a complement, a fifth order focuses on rebuilding trust in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that undergirds federally funded research. President Trump pointed to various cases in which government agencies have used or promoted scientific information in “highly misleading” manner, from ignoring data that should have kept schools open during the pandemic to promoting only worst-case scenarios regarding climate variability.
The order calls for new guidance on implementing “Gold Standard Science” that is reproducible, transparent, communicative of error and uncertainty, collaborative and interdisciplinary, skeptical of its findings and assumptions, structured for falsifiability of hypotheses, subject to unbiased peer review, accepting of negative results as positive outcomes, and without conflict of interest – all of which have been characteristically lacking in recent years.
According to the John Milton Freedom Foundation, the Trump nuclear energy initiative is “a nuclear moonshot” – a 21st century Manhattan Project — essential for reforging the backbone of American energy production by unleashing the atom’s full peacetime potential. Nuclear energy is needed to power AI, machine learning, and data centers that are swamping the antiquated, increasingly intermittently powered electric grid.
Without dismantling the NRC’s unscientific bureaucratic barriers, there would still be no way for permitting, testing, and deploying experimental reactor technologies and novel fuel cycles. Amuse says that thorium reactors, which offer superior safety profiles, lower waste production, and inherent resistance to weapons proliferation, deserve special attention, as even their failure modes tend toward passive shutdowns rather than catastrophic meltdowns.
Thorcon co-founder Robert Hargraves, a leading critic of the old NRC, praises the Trump initiative for ending stifling “leave no trace” and “as low as reasonably achievable” rules. Still, the “NRC thickets of regulations” set up to enforce LNT and ALARA remain “the molasses slowing approvals and raising costs.” Time will tell just how widespread the nuclear revolution at the Trump-led NRC really is.
NANO Nuclear Energy CEO James Walker lauds the White House for mandating that the NRC reduce the timeline for licensing new nuclear reactors from over a decade to just 18 months. Eliminating needless, costly, and time-consuming delays can dramatically lower costs associated with bringing nuclear power plants online. The reclassification of uranium as a critical mineral will shorten the time frame for mining permits from 18 months to about 60 days.
But Walker urges Congress to codify the Trump executive orders into law to ensure their permanence beyond 2028. Only through statutory changes will investors and stakeholders find the regulatory certainty needed for serious investment in nuclear energy development.
With the nuclear energy revival gaining bipartisan support in recent months, Congress ought to be able to find a mutually acceptable new nuclear energy framework – one that incorporates the vision of President Eisenhower and reinstalls the principles behind the old Atomic Energy Commission.
This article was originally published at RealClear Energy on May 30, 2025, and is reproduced here by permission.
Photo of the Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle Units 1 – 4 in from U.S. Department of Energy, public domain.
