On Friday, May 23, 2025, President Trump signed four executive orders related to nuclear energy, three of which seek to expedite approval processes for permitting new nuclear reactors.
The orders, which build upon Executive Order 141541 and Executive Order 14156,2 collectively seek to harness the resources of executive agencies to promote advanced nuclear energy in support of national security objectives, including powering artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure. Despite longstanding interest in nuclear energy as a reliable and emissions-free source of energy, the pace of regulatory reform and supply chain interventions have lagged, delaying the anticipated deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.
The first executive order, titled "Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," describes the expensive and time-consuming nature of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) current process for authorizing and constructing nuclear reactors and characterizes the current NRC approach as excessively risk-averse.3 The order seeks to reestablish the United States as a leader in nuclear energy by reforming the culture and structure of and the regulations governing the NRC to facilitate "expeditious processing of licensing applications and the adoption of innovative technology."4 The order directs the NRC, working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to conduct a wholesale revision of NRC's regulations and guidance documents, with final regulations and guidance due within 18 months.5 These include, among other action items, "fixed deadlines for its evaluation and approval of licenses, license amendments, license renewals, certificates of compliance, power uprates, license transfers, and any other activity requested by a licensee or potential licensee," adoption of "science-based radiation limits," and revision of the NRC's regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), in consultation with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
In a second order titled "Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base," the president declared it the policy of the United States to "expedite and promote to the fullest possible extent the production and operation of nuclear energy."6 The order recognizes that "the Nation's nuclear fuel cycle infrastructure has severely atrophied, leaving the United States heavily dependent on foreign sources of uranium as well as uranium enrichment and conversion services." Among the many initiatives included, the order directs the secretary of energy to work with the secretaries of defense and transportation and the director of OMB to develop both national policies to support nuclear development and recommendations for nuclear efficiency measures and to work with the chair of NRC and director of OMB to develop a plan to expand domestic uranium conversion capacity7 and expand enrichment capabilities sufficient to meet projected civilian and defense reactor needs for low enriched uranium (LEU), high enriched uranium (HEU), and high assay, low enriched uranium (HALEU). The order further directs the secretary of energy to stop the surplus plutonium "dilute and dispose" program and develop an alternative program that makes such surplus plutonium available to industry for developing advanced nuclear technology.8 The same order seeks to expand the nuclear energy workforce by increasing participation in nuclear energy related Registered Apprenticeships and Career and Technical Education programs.9 Furthermore, it directs the secretary of energy, through the Loan Programs Office, to prioritize activities that support increased nuclear energy, including making resources available for restarting closed nuclear power plants and completing construction of prematurely suspended plants, and, within 180 days, to coordinate with the administrator of the Small Business Administration to prioritize funding for qualified advanced nuclear technologies through grants, loans, investment capital, funding opportunities, and other federal support.10
In his third order, titled "Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security," the president directs the secretary of defense, through the secretary of the Army, to establish a program for utilization of nuclear energy for "installation energy"11 and "operational energy"12 and to install or begin operating a nuclear reactor regulated by the U.S. Army at a domestic military base by 2028.13 The order also directs the secretary of energy to designate AI data centers as critical defense facilities to support national security missions and to designate one or more U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) site(s) for the use and development of nuclear reactor technology. The secretary is directed to streamline the approval of these projects with a goal of operations no later than 30 months from the date of this order, considering the use of categorical exclusions or emergency alternative procedures under NEPA. The secretary is further directed to authorize the construction and operation of privately funded advanced reactor technologies on DOE lands.14 These directives align with DOE's April 2025 Request for Information (RFI) seeking information on opportunities to site AI infrastructure15 on DOE-owned or DOE-managed land assets by the end of 2027.16 The secretary of energy is also instructed to identify uranium and plutonium available for recycling or processing into nuclear fuel, release into a fuel bank at least 20 metric tons or HALEU from any project authorized from the private sector to construct and operate a project on a DOE site for the purpose of powering AI and other infrastructure, and endeavor to approve privately funded nuclear fuel recycling and reprocessing technologies.17
The order directs the secretary of state to engage in various measures to promote American nuclear exports.18 These include, among other initiatives, leading diplomatic engagement and negotiations and "aggressively" pursuing at least 20 new Section 123 agreements19 under the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) to access new markets in partner countries. The secretary of energy is also directed to expeditiously review and adjudicate export authorization requests. Finally, the order directs multiple agencies to develop a strategy to finance nuclear energy technology, including pilots and fuel supplies through, among others, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Export-Import Bank, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
Finally, the president signed an order titled "Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy," intended to unlock the "revolutionary potential" of advanced reactors20 for new applications, such as supporting data centers, microchip manufacturing, petrochemical production, healthcare, desalination, and hydrogen production, by streamlining national laboratory processes for nuclear reactor testing at DOE. The order directs the secretary to issue guidance on what counts as a "qualified reactor"21 and to revise the regulations, guidance, and procedures and practices of DOE, the national laboratories, and any other entity under DOE's jurisdiction to significantly expedite the review, approval, and deployment of advanced reactors under the department's jurisdiction. The expedited procedures must enable qualified test reactors to be safely operational at DOE-owned or controlled facilities within two years following the submission of a substantially complete application.22 The order then directs the secretary to establish a pilot program for reactor construction and operation beyond the national laboratories and to approve at least three reactors pursuant to this pilot program.23 The order directs the secretary of energy to streamline environmental review under NEPA, including through reforming DOE's NEPA regulations consistent with Executive Order 14154 and considering other measures, such as assessing which department functions are not subject to NEPA, creating categorical exclusions as appropriate for reactors within certain parameters (or relying on existing categorical exclusions), relying on supplemental analyses where reactors will be located on existing sites, or utilizing alternative procedures under NEPA.
Conclusion
These executive orders represent a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to revitalize and modernize the United States' nuclear energy sector by dramatically reforming the NRC, expediting the process for authorizing, constructing, and operating nuclear reactors, including on federal lands, and developing a plan to strengthen the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. If fully implemented, this agenda could fundamentally reshape the nuclear landscape in the United States. Whether the expansive directives will succeed remains to be seen. Challenges to any attempts to streamline and expedite the approval process for nuclear reactors are inevitable. The weakening of NRC's independence, alongside a reduction in workforce and a constrained supply chain, could also present significant obstacles to the administration's ambitious initiative.
Footnotes
1. Exec. Order No. 14154, Unleashing American Energy, 90 Fed. Reg. 8353 (Jan. 20, 2025).
2. Exec. Order No. 14156, Declaring a National Energy Emergency, 90 Fed. Reg. 8433 (Jan. 20, 2025).
3. Exec. Order No. __, Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (May 23, 2025) ("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."), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ordering-the-reform-of-the-nuclear-regulatory-commission/.
4. Id. at § 4.
5. Id. at § 5.
6. Exec. Order No. __, Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base (May 23, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/reinvigorating-the-nuclear-industrial-base/.
7. This directive complements the president's Executive Order 14241 on Immediate Measures to Increase Mineral Production, which is covered in our prior update.
8. Except in the case of its legal obligations to the state of South Carolina. Id. at § 3(c).
9. Id. at § 5.
10. Id. at § 4.
11. Installation energy is "the power that DoD uses to heat and cool its buildings, electrify its operations, and to operate fleets of non-tactical vehicles." A. Holland et al., Powering Military Bases: DoD's Installation Energy Efforts (2013), available at https://www.americansecurityproject.org/ASP%20Reports/Ref%200128%20-%20DoD%20Installation%20Energy%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf.
12. Operational energy is the "energy required for training, moving, and sustaining military forces and weapons platforms for military operations." 10 U.S.C. § 2924.
13. Exec. Order No. _, Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security (May 23, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/deploying-advanced-nuclear-reactor-technologies-for-national-security/. Advanced nuclear reactors under this order include "nuclear energy systems like Generation III+ reactors, small modular reactors, microreactors, and stationary and mobile reactors." Id. at § 1.
14. Id. at § 4. A detailed breakdown of the RFI can be found in our prior update.
15. "AI infrastructure" refers collectively to AI data centers, their specialized IT equipment and associated cooling facilities, and their energy supply, including sources of generation, transmission (including substations), and storage.
16. Id. at § 4.
17. Id. at § 5.
18. Id. at § 8.
19. Atomic Energy Act of 1954 § 123, 42 U.S.C. § 2153.
20. 42 U.S.C. § 16271(b)(1).
21. The order defines a "qualified test reactor" as "an advanced reactor that satisfies thresholds established by the Department sufficient to demonstrate that, from the perspective of technical development and financial backing, the reactor may feasibly be operational within 2 years from the date a substantially complete application is submitted." Exec. Order No. ____, supra note 13, at § 2(c).
22. The order does not, however, direct construction of a new testing facility.
23. Exec. Order No. __, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy (May 23, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/reforming-nuclear-reactor-testing-at-the-department-of-energy/.
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