Trump signs four executive orders to quadruple US nuclear capacity to 400 GW

The orders direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to set fixed deadlines: 18 months for a final decision on new reactor construction applications and 12 months for applications to extend the operating life of existing reactors. Current NRC reviews have historically taken 3 to 7 years, sometimes longer.

One executive order uses the Defense Production Act — a Cold War-era law typically used to prioritize defense manufacturing — to rebuild the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. Russia currently provides roughly 25% of U.S. uranium enrichment services, a dependency the orders aim to reduce.

The orders authorize rapid deployment of reactors at Department of Defense and Department of Energy sites to power AI data centers and military installations. Tech companies including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have signed contracts to buy nuclear power for their data centers, driving new commercial interest.

No existing executive order provides a concrete solution for the nation's growing stockpile of high-level nuclear waste. One order directs the Energy Secretary to submit a 240-day report recommending national policy for spent fuel management, but the U.S. has lacked a permanent repository since Congress cancelled the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada in 2010.

An NPR investigation published January 28, 2026, found that the Trump administration had secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules — reducing radiation exposure limits and relaxing emergency planning requirements — without the public notice and comment process required by federal rulemaking law. The NRC is an independent agency, but Trump's executive orders directed it to work with DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget to revise regulations.

The NRC's independence from direct presidential control is a design choice dating to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and its reorganization following the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. Critics argue the May 2025 executive orders cross a constitutional line by directing an independent regulatory agency to change its rules under presidential supervision — potentially undermining the separation of functions that keeps safety regulators free from political pressure.

The U.S. currently has 94 operating nuclear reactors generating about 19% of total electricity. The 400-gigawatt goal would require nuclear to generate approximately 40-50% of U.S. electricity by 2050 — a transformation that would require not only new reactor construction but a wholesale rebuilding of the nuclear workforce, supply chain, and fuel cycle that the industry largely lost over the past 40 years.