The Trump administration wants to unleash the power of nuclear energy. On Friday, President Donald Trump signed four executive orders (EOs) to expedite the construction of nuclear reactors in the United States for civilian and military use.
The orders are intended to trim down burdensome regulations that have frozen nuclear power production for decades and quadruple it over the next 25 years. The administration wants to expand production from the nearly 100 gigawatts of electrical capacity it’s producing today to 400 gigawatts by 2050. “It is the policy of the United States to expedite and promote to the fullest possible extent the production and operation of nuclear energy to provide affordable, reliable, safe, and secure energy to the American people,” reads the order titled “Reinvigorating the nuclear industrial base.” One gigawatt can power almost 1 million homes.
Another order creates a new pilot program that will lead to three new experimental reactors online by July 4, 2026. The goal here is to roll out smaller reactors that can be built faster.
Stifled Production
The United States has the most nuclear power plants with 94, but only three have come online since 1996. One of the orders notes that drastic difference between the past three decades and the decades before that when the United States was standing up nuclear power plants as if they were part of a fast food chain:
Between 1954 and 1978, the United States authorized the construction of 133 since-completed civilian nuclear reactors at 81 power plants. Since 1978, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized only a fraction of that number; of these, only two reactors have entered into commercial operation.
In the same order, the Trump administration issued an excoriating rebuke of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for stifling nuclear power production over the last four decades. It reads:
The NRC charges applicants by the hour to process license applications, with prolonged timelines that maximize fees while throttling nuclear power development. The NRC has failed to license new reactors even as technological advances promise to make nuclear power safer, cheaper, more adaptable, and more abundant than ever.
This failure stems from a fundamental error: Instead of efficiently promoting safe, abundant nuclear energy, the NRC has instead tried to insulate Americans from the most remote risks without appropriate regard for the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of such risk aversion. The NRC utilizes safety models that posit there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure and that harm is directly proportional to the amount of exposure. Those models lack sound scientific basis and produce irrational results, such as requiring that nuclear plants protect against radiation below naturally occurring levels. A myopic policy of minimizing even trivial risks ignores the reality that substitute forms of energy production also carry risk, such as pollution with potentially deleterious health effects.
The order even mentioned the recent blackouts in Spain and Portugal as a way to emphasize the importance of keeping up with energy demands. It then directs three types of reforms within the NRC: cultural, structural, and regulatory. Among the most notable are the call to expedite the processing and licensing process, and a demand for issuing related final rules in 18 months.
Another order instructs the Energy and Defense departments to look into standing up reactors on federal lands and military bases, which would allow the government to sidestep regulatory red tape.
National Security
The issue of national security is a prevailing theme among this flurry of orders. And baked in it is perhaps the pivotal reason the government reversed decades of antagonism toward nuclear power. The order titled “Deploying advanced nuclear reactor technologies for national security” reads, in part:
The United States faces a critical national security imperative to ensure a resilient, secure, and reliable energy supply for critical defense facilities.… Advanced computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and other mission capability resources at military and national security installations and national laboratories demands reliable, high-density power sources that cannot be disrupted by external threats or grid failures. These facilities and resources’ vulnerability to energy disruption represents a strategic risk that must be addressed.
AI has not only changed how college students cheat, it has revolutionized warfare. Artificial intelligence has increased the speed and accuracy at which data is processed. It has improved situational awareness thanks to the use of AI-powered sensors that create a better understanding of the battlefield in a fraction of the time. AI enhances drone capabilities; it makes them better equipped to patrol borders and zero in on threats. AI also includes deep-fake technology, which is essentially the capability to fabricate out of thin air fake photos, audio, and video, all part of misinformation warfare. Militaries also now rely on AI to break codes and encrypt information. And, of course, AI reduces risk to human beings.
Powerful nations such as the United States, China, and Russia see AI as critical to developing and maintaining a fighting edge. As these nations rush to bolster their military prowess, AI is critical. It’s no accident that China is standing up nuclear reactors faster than any other nation. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Trump administration. The order on national security reads:
Despite its promise, such technology has not been utilized in the United States at the scale or speed necessary to meet the Nation’s urgent national security requirements, while our adversaries are rapidly exporting and deploying such technology around the world.
A report from the World Nuclear Industry says that as of January 2025, 61 nuclear units were being built around the world, with nearly half of them — 29 — in China. Moreover, of the seven new reactors connected to the grid in 2024, three were in China. France, India, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States accounted for the other four.
Pros and Cons
Private AI companies such as OpenAI and Palantir have already been working with the government, including with defense departments. And while the government always pitches the power of AI as a positive, there is little reason not to suspect that these new capabilities won’t be weaponized against civilians. This magazine has documented various scandals, lies, and outright abuses perpetrated for more than a century. And just as agencies used archaic technology to surveil and manipulate civilians, it will undoubtedly abuse this new technology for the same means.
Globalists also want to harness the power of AI for their own means. Like the nefarious elements within government, globalists see in AI an unrivaled tool for surveillance and manipulation. Bill Gates is among the most vociferous backers of nuclear power He has said outright that he supports it because it’s necessary to build AI infrastructure.
Nevertheless, that should not negate the net good that nuclear brings. Nuclear power is efficient, reliable, and affordable. It reduces energy costs for the average person, thereby improving his standard of living. Nuclear even comes with benefits for those who are truly concerned about emissions: It’s emission-free. And perhaps most importantly, it’s safe; far safer than it’s been portrayed.
The Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island nuclear accidents have been the poster incidents for the creation of irrational fear toward this great energy source. But few people know that not a single person died in the Three Mile Island or Fukushima events. As for Chernobyl, the tenuous tally is 31 immediate deaths, most from the explosion and fires, not radiation. All three come to far less than the hundreds of deaths associated to wind turbines, which, according to some sources, total more than 200.
