Trump Signs Executive Orders to Boost Nuclear Energy Even as Regulatory Body Remains Understaffed

President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders intended to stimulate a “nuclear energy renaissance” by building new reactors to meet the electricity demands of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and other emerging industries.

The executive orders clear a path for construction on America’s federal lands, allow for design testing of nuclear reactors at United States Department of Energy labs and “remove regulatory barriers by requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to issue timely licensing decisions,” a press release from the White House said.

“Over the last 30 years, we stopped building nuclear reactors in America – that ends now. Today’s executive orders are the most significant nuclear regulatory reform actions taken in decades. We are restoring a strong American nuclear industrial base, rebuilding a secure and sovereign domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, and leading the world towards a future fueled by American nuclear energy. These actions are critical to American energy independence and continued dominance in AI and other emerging technologies,” said Michael Kratsios, the director of science and technology at the White House Office of Science.

The executive orders “expand America’s Energy Dominance agenda,” according to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

On the first day of his second term as president, Trump declared an energy emergency, moving to reverse a Biden-era pause on new export terminals for natural gas and to expand drilling for oil and gas in Alaska.

Nuclear energy doesn’t produce the carbon emissions that the use of fossil fuels does, but it does produce radioactive waste that the country does not have the ability to permanently store, reported The Guardian. Environmental groups have expressed concerns about the safety of nuclear reactors, as well as their supply chain.

The executive orders are intended to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the purpose of advancing nuclear technologies and lowering regulatory barriers, while increasing the country’s nuclear capacity from 100 to 400 gigawatts by mid-century, a press release from the American Nuclear Society said.

“Mark this day on your calendar. This is going to turn the clock back on over 50 years of overregulation of an industry,” Burgum said at an event where the orders were signed, as The Guardian reported. “President Trump here today has committed to energy dominance, and part of that energy dominance is that we’ve got enough electricity to win the AI arms race with China.”

In past decades, accidents at nuclear plants both in the U.S. and overseas have caused public opposition to nuclear energy. And while Trump has described nuclear technology as “very safe,” the downsizing of the federal workforce by the Department of Government Efficiency, such as layoffs at the National Nuclear Security Administration — which oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal — has created issues.

The job cuts have been feared to hinder the cleanup of decades-old nuclear waste at the Hanford nuclear plant in Washington state, which was decommissioned in 1989.

Republicans in Congress have made efforts to implement Trump’s energy policies while reversing those of the former Biden administration.

This week, the sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. It alters the availability of tax incentives for renewable energy plants, limiting them to projects that begin construction 60 days after enactment of the bill and are finished by 2028.

Meanwhile, nuclear power plants have until 2028 to start construction.