US President Donald Trump has signed the executive orders to boost nuclear power by way of easing the regulatory process on approvals for new reactors as well as strengthening the fuel supply chain. It is well to be noted that Trump had declared an energy emergency on his first day in office in the second term. This was due to the fact that there was the first rise in demand for power in two decades, which was witnessed from the boom in artificial intelligence.
According to the energy secretary, Chris Wright, the race to develop power sources along with data centers, which are needed for AI, can very well be called the Manhattan Project, referring to the massive US program across World War II in order to develop atomic bombs. A draft summary of the order says that Trump is going to invoke the Cold War-era Defense Production Act in order to declare a national emergency on US dependence on Russia and China for enriched uranium, advanced reactor inputs, and nuclear fuel processing.
The summary also goes on to direct agencies to permit and site new nuclear facilities and also has directed the Department of Energy and Defense to identify federal lands along with facilities for nuclear rollout and to streamline the processes so as to get them built.
It also goes on to encourage the energy department to make use of loan guarantees as well as direct loans in order to raise the build-out of reactors. Trump had gone on to use the loan programs office in his first administration in order to support a large nuclear plant based in Georgia. It is well to be noted that the LPO now has hundreds of billions of dollars when it comes to financing, all thanks to legislation that was passed during former President Joe Biden’s term; however, it has been hit hard by jobs during the second administration of Trump.
It is worth noting that the United States was the first developer when it comes to nuclear power and has the most nuclear power capacity across the world. However, the energy sources are growing the fastest in China.
One of the sources said that the industry, which includes the Nuclear Energy Institute and Constellation—a utility having the biggest US reactor capacity—had been invited to attend the signing ceremony.
It is worth noting that the Trump administration had been debating almost four draft executive orders to boost nuclear power, which sought ways to give the administration more power in order to approve the reactors and also reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is the body of five panelists that approves the reactors.
The fact is that nuclear is pretty popular with Democrats for being almost free in carbon emissions, and it is also popular with Republicans for offering dependable electricity compared to wind and solar power, which can also be random and irregular, a kind of problem that can be managed with battery storage. Apparently, nuclear power produces radioactive waste for which there is no permanent repository available in the United States.
