Today, President Trump signed four executive orders which will set the nuclear energy policy not just for his administration, but for the next century of American energy development. These are not minor readjustments; they are a fundamental reset for the United States, driven by a new understanding of our national interest and the global landscape. These orders undo decades of missteps, and represent our best shot as a nation to make up for lost time in the impending race for energy dominance.
Over the last 50 years, American nuclear policy has been defined by a single, overriding concern: weapons non-proliferation. Preventing the spread of nuclear weaponry was, and will remain, an important goal. But it is no longer enough. There's a new arm to national nuclear security: Dominance. Dominance in civilian nuclear technology development, dominance in nuclear energy infrastructure deployment, dominance in shaping global development.
America was once second to none in nuclear technology. The first artificial nuclear reactor, the first nuclear powered submarine, the first nuclear-powered rocket engine, the first fast spectrum reactor; all of these wonders were built by Americans.
Americans created every major branch of reactor architecture: gas reactors, pressurized water reactors, molten salt reactors, and sodium reactors. All of it was first built and tested in the United States.
But even as America was pioneering every type of new reactor, with defense and civil applications, promising security both martial and economic, we were unconsciously creating the conditions to give that pre-eminent position up.
What began as a renaissance of scientific achievement became a headache to policymakers. The primary worry, non-proliferation, stemmed from a deep fear of nuclear energy's immense power for creation and destruction. Alongside the destructive power unleashed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we knew the economic powerhouse any country with cheap, abundant energy would become. Congress created a silent, unspoken, ever larger growing mandate for the AEC, and successive agencies ERDA and NRC: hide the power of the atom.
That unwritten rule permeated our bureaucratic structure and laws and regulations. This instinct was not mistaken. Atomic energy is a powerful force. But the doctrine of secrecy quickly fell apart. It is hard to conceal a property of nature. The Soviets, aided through espionage and scientific brilliance, tested their first nuclear device in 1949. Then the United Kingdom, then France. In 1964, Red China became a nuclear power as well and a decade later, India. A few years later, an event would take place that ended American public confidence in the wisdom of nuclear energy: a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island generating station in Pennsylvania. Progress in civil nuclear development would be nearly eliminated in the West, despite the energy boon.
The nuclear policy of the last 50 years is no longer serving the interests of the United States or our allies. We built ever higher walls around the technology to harness nuclear energy, but the nuclear force is not a proprietary technology; it is a property of Nature. The technology of nuclear reactors, like weapons, belongs to those who build them. And in focusing on building walls rather than building reactors, we have fortified an empire of dirt.
That is why Dominance is a new imperative. The next century will be marked by an unprecedented energy race, powering everything from advanced manufacturing and robotics to artificial intelligence compute and materials refining. Who is going to own nuclear deployment all over the world? Our world will be shaped by energy availability even more profoundly than it was in the 20th century. The question is: who will have that energy, and who will build it for everyone else? Whose infrastructure will buy them influence?
Today, China and Russia are far ahead of us in pace of building nuclear capacity for themselves and for other countries, pushing their own "Belt and Road" style initiatives and reaping the benefits. Even the nuclear material constraints are on the verge of being broken: China can extract uranium from seawater; both Russia and China have built fast reactors, which can produce plutonium. China is building advanced designs like molten salt thorium reactors domestically, Russia is deploying its technology across Africa and South America. Meanwhile, the United States has struggled to build much of anything.
For America to maintain its influence and leverage, to meet its own defense obligations, and to lead globally, it is absolutely imperative that we achieve global nuclear dominance through civilian technology, becoming the planet’s preferred supplier of energy infrastructure. Nuclear security comes from nuclear dominance, and dominance comes from building well and often, not just domestically, but all over the world.
Second, these orders restore the role of the Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE must once again consciously act as a testbed for nuclear innovation, not an alternative regulator. Surveying the history of the DOE, from its origins in the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) through the Energy Reorganization Act, Congress has consistently reaffirmed its core mission: the DOE is an agency that is supposed to test nuclear reactors. In fact, Congress has reaffirmed this role every time it has addressed the DOE by legislation. Even so, it has only fulfilled this mission and tested a nuclear reactor once in its nearly 50-year history. The DOE was never intended to operate as a separate nuclear regulator for research and development. Instead, it is supposed to be a test agency, facilitating safe nuclear R&D by providing resources and expertise to conduct tests with prime contractors.
The original hazard safety reports for nuclear reactors were typically about sixty pages, not the bureaucratic mountains of today. Current licensing timelines dwarf the actual time to build. Today’s EO changes all of that, with small reactor designs under safety thresholds being fast-tracked, letting companies build, test, and move technological understanding forward rapidly. Today’s EOs return the DOE to its purpose as a test agency alongside industry which uses its practical experience to help the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) understand how to practically regulate new technologies after development.
Third, these orders affirm that DOE and NRC must operate on the principle that regulation follows industry, and not the other way around. This is the natural order of technological progress and the proper role of regulation. Companies and individuals with ideas and courage create new, valuable things. Then, regulatory bodies establish sensible guardrails around that proven technology to ensure safety and allow it to scale responsibly.
That proper understanding was lost, so lost that it became entirely inverted, leading to absurdities like the NRC’s Part 53, which attempts to set out exhaustive rules for advanced nuclear technology before any significant number of such reactors have even been built.
The new EOs, taken together, restore sanity. They clear a path for companies to develop advanced technologies, with regulators invited to carefully supervise that process and then, from genuine data and operational experience, propose the guardrails for responsibly scaling proven technologies, moving in six-month to one-year iterations.
These three principles—Dominance, DOE as a Testbed, and Regulation Follows Innovation—are now being put into action through the following executive orders:
1. Nuclear Energy for National Security
This Executive Order is all about American nuclear dominance. DOE export license decisions will be expedited, with a new export office whose rulings are mandated within 30 days to directly compete with China and Russia’s aggressive building of energy infrastructure abroad. A nuclear energy envoy will be appointed to secure new nuclear trade deals. Nine military bases are now marked for immediate review and siting to speed readiness, especially in key strategic areas like the Indo-Pacific and Arctic. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force will each start nuclear procurement programs creating scalable contracts for reliable power; not only to enhance their capability but to provide the regular demand needed for a U.S. industrial base to compete globally and achieve dominance. Existing DoD legal tools will be used to speed up nuclear deployment on military bases and private investment will be encouraged alongside the DOE connecting to civil power grids to increase resilience. To ensure energy autonomy, crucial for dominance, plutonium recycling will be increased and enriched uranium will be released to create a domestic reactor fuel supply for defense needs. Reactor R&D at DOE sites will integrate defense needs, supporting the DOE as a testbed while developing technologies for future dominance. Used reactor fuel will be recycled to reduce foreign dependence, and security clearances for a new domestic nuclear workforce will be accelerated.
2. Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
This order is about fundamentally changing how the U.S. regulates nuclear technology, ensuring regulation follows innovation and enables U.S. dominance by dismantling the self-imposed blockages of the past. The shift to domestic nuclear itself reduces reliance on foreign sources. The NRC will be reformed to eliminate crippling delays and overregulation, allowing American industry to innovate and compete globally. Reducing NRC export delays is vital to stop competitors from dominating global markets. This involves replacing outdated radiation models and overly conservative safety thresholds, allowing safety to be based on current science, not fear. The NRC will once again be a regulator, not an obstructor. Advanced simulation and modeling will accelerate reactor design testing and approvals. Existing reactors are mandated to be kept open and paused builds restarted, stabilizing our industrial base. NRC regulations themselves will be modernized. The NRC’s mission will be explicitly aligned with national security and strategic energy needs. Staff reorganization and Code of Federal Regulations rewrites will speed approvals. Fixed 18-month deadlines will be imposed on reactor license decisions. Flawed radiation harm models like LNT will be abandoned. NEPA reviews will be streamlined. Developers will be protected from design changes after construction starts. Unnecessary security demands will be scaled back.
3. Reforming Nuclear Research and Development at the Department of Energy
This order is focused on restoring the DOE to its original mission as a true, effective testbed, reviving its role in nuclear testing and ending the stagnation. Rules for fast-tracking reactor approvals to begin development will be clarified, mandating reactor approvals or rejections within a one-year timeframe. Dedicated DOE teams will expedite applicant support, and technically viable projects will be prioritized. At least three DOE reactors will be built outside traditional labs, with three targeted for July 4th, 2026. Critically, pilot reactors developed under this initiative will be regulated solely by DOE during the R&D phase, bypassing the NRC entirely to speed innovation. Private fuel plants will support DOE testing, serving only DOE-authorized reactors. Fuel facility approvals will be expedited to under six months. NEPA reviews for small, efficient test reactors will be streamlined, with categorical relief provided. An interagency team, DOGE, will oversee and monitor these vital reforms.
4. Ushering in a Nuclear Renaissance
Finally, this order lays the technical and regulatory groundwork for a complete revitalization of the U.S. nuclear ecosystem, essential for achieving dominance, restoring the DOE as a research testbed, and ensuring that American nuclear industry leads U.S. nuclear regulation. Nuclear energy will be treated as a strategic national asset. Spent fuel reprocessing will be enabled. Domestic uranium conversion and HALEU fabrication will be restored from prior bans. Existing stocks of weapons plutonium will be repurposed, and a new U.S.-sourced uranium reserve will be built. The President will grant DOE Defense Production Act powers authorizing this uranium procurement. Alongside restarting stalled nuclear plants and new DOE funding for nuclear research and commercial startups, a comprehensive nuclear workforce strategy will address skill gaps. This includes creating alternative credential pathways, expanding apprenticeships, guiding state funding, prioritizing nuclear education in federal grants, and opening national labs to students. These actions will build the domestic industry, fuel supply, and skilled workforce necessary for American global nuclear dominance, for the DOE testbed to thrive, and for regulation to mature alongside a dynamic industry instead of obstructing it.
These Executive Orders are not standalone measures. They are an integrated strategy for the United States to decisively secure its energy future, enhance its national security, and reclaim its position as the world’s leading technological power. This is about ensuring America builds, owns, and defines the next generation of energy for itself and the world, setting the course for the next 100 years of American nuclear policy.