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(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed orders meant to accelerate the construction of nuclear power plants, including small, untested designs that offer the promise of rapid deployment but have yet to be built in the US.
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The effort is a bid to meet a coming surge in electricity demand and help the US reclaim its edge in nuclear energy. While the US was once the leader in deploying and producing nuclear power, in the last 30 years it’s finished building only two new reactors and shuttered existing plants, even as China and Russia race to deploy them.
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Trump’s initiative to unleash nuclear energy could give a boost to an emission-free source of power that’s championed as a climate-friendly alternative to electricity generated by burning coal and natural gas. However, the president has championed nuclear energy as a complement, rather than a replacement, for fossil fuels.
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“We’re signing tremendous executive orders today that really will make us the real power in this industry,” Trump said as he signed the directives in the Oval Office, adding that nuclear technology “has come a long way, both in safety and costs.”
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Trump was joined by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and energy industry executives including Constellation Energy Corp. CEO Joseph Dominguez and Jake DeWitte of Oklo Inc.
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The initiative represents the latest bid by an American president to jump start the domestic nuclear industry, which has languished in recent decades. Former President Joe Biden last year laid out a plan to triple US nuclear capacity by 2050, and Trump’s new plain aims to quadruple it. It also comes as technology companies are clamoring for power to supply energy-hungry data centers.
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The effort is likely to give a boost to companies developing small reactors, including Last Energy Inc., Oklo, TerraPower LLC and NuScale Power Corp. The orders also include provisions aimed at ensuring 10 large, conventional reactors are also under construction by 2030, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially benefiting Westinghouse Electric Co., whose gigawatt-scale AP1000 design was the last commercial nuclear unit built in the US and has been embraced worldwide.
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Trump’s nuclear initiative also would support the restart of shuttered nuclear plants as well as upgrades at existing sites and completion of others — potentially aiding South Carolina utility Santee Cooper’s bid to resume building two reactors at its V.C. Summer plant, where soaring costs prompted the company to halt construction in 2017.
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However, Trump’s nuclear push comes as lawmakers move to phase out a government subsidy that’s seen as critical to helping propel construction of new reactors and support existing plants. Developers have said the change would create a significant barrier to building nuclear plants.
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