Executive Orders Aim to Unlock America's Nuclear Energy Sector

On May 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed four executive orders aimed at revitalizing and accelerating the growth of nuclear energy in the United States. The executive orders direct actions by the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Department of Commerce, and other government agencies to support the increased development and deployment of nuclear energy on aggressive timelines. In a press release, the White House described the orders as intended to “unshackle our civil nuclear energy industry” and “usher in a nuclear energy renaissance” after “decades of stagnation and shuttered reactors.” These actions are explicitly targeted at “unleashing” nuclear to support “continued dominance in AI and other emerging technologies,” with one of the Executive Orders setting a goal of expanding nuclear energy capacity to 400 GW by 2050 from the current 100 GW.

Current nuclear industry licensees are likely to be particularly interested in the Executive Order directed at reforming the NRC and its licensing process. In that order, the President directed the NRC to establish hard deadlines to complete reviews of new reactor license applications within 18 months and other licensing reviews within a year, limiting the fee recoveries from applicants if these deadlines are not met. Moreover, the President has directed a wholescale revamp of the NRC’s regulations and guidance over the next 18 months. Another Executive Order calls on DOE to prioritize work with the NRC to facilitate 5 GW of power uprates at existing nuclear reactors and have 10 new large reactors with complete designs under construction by 2030, including prioritizing use of DOE Loan Programs Office funds.

Heeding calls from the U.S. nuclear industry concerned about the availability of nuclear fuel, other Executive Orders direct actions designed to rebuild a domestic nuclear fuel supply, including in conversion and enrichment services, and the exploration of starting a used fuel reprocessing industry in the United States. The President further calls on DOE and DOD to make excess uranium available for commercial use, including under the Defense Production Act. This executive order also directs the Department of Labor and other agencies to help expand and reinvigorate the U.S. nuclear workforce.

The remaining Executive Orders are aimed at helping develop and demonstrate new advanced reactor designs. The President directed DOD and DOE to take steps to deploy advanced nuclear reactors to support national-security objectives, including powering AI infrastructure and national security installations such as military bases, with the goal of deploying an advanced nuclear reactor at a domestic military base by the fall of 2028. As announced at the signing event, the President establishes a goal of having three experimental reactor designs achieving criticality and operational by July 4, 2026, the semiquincentennial of the United States. The President also directs an examination of the government’s policies for the export of nuclear technology and designs to foreign companies with the goal of making U.S. technology the technology of choice on the international marketplace.

A brief summary of each of the four Executive Orders follows.

Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

• Directs the NRC to establish fixed deadlines for its evaluation and approval of licensing actions of no longer than 18 months for new reactor applications, and no more than one year for reactors that are currently operating. These deadlines are to be enforced by fixed caps on the NRC’s recovery of hourly fees. 
• Mandates that the NRC undertake a “review and wholesale revision” of its regulations and guidance, issuing notices of proposed rulemaking within 9 months of the date of this order. Final rules and guidance that conclude the wholesale revisions must be issued within 18 months.
• Commands the NRC to reconsider reliance on the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for radiation exposure, including the “as low as reasonably achievable” or “ALARA” standard. This current standard generally posits there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure and that harm from radiation is directly proportional to the amount of exposure. The result is that current nuclear operators are required to reduce dose even below levels of “background” radiation that all people receive from naturally occurring materials in the earth’s crust, radiation from space, medical procedures, and other industrial activities unrelated to the nuclear industry. 
• Directs the NRC to establish an expedited pathway to review reactor designs that DOD or DOE have tested and demonstrated, presumably including those demonstrated pursuant to the other Executive Orders discussed below.
  • Directs a reorganization of the NRC and a reduction in force in consultation with the Department of Government Efficiency, with a focus on supporting the “expeditious processing of licensing actions and adoption of innovative technology.” The Executive Order does not specify the size of the reduction in force or explain which agency functions other than licensing of new reactors might be impacted.

• Directs additional reviews of NRC regulations, guidance, and practices relating to:

  • Reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act for environmental reviews of licensing actions, including increasing the implementation of the 2023 amendments to NEPA; 
  • The ability of the agency to require changes to reactor designs once construction has started, i.e., backfit and issue preclusion issues;
  • Refocusing the Reactor Oversight Process and safety analysis on “credible, realistic risks;”
  • Reconsidering the length of the term of a renewed operating license, which is currently set at 20 years, based on safety risks rather than economic and antitrust concerns; and 
  • streamlining the public hearing process for certain actions. 

Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base 

• Directs DOE to prioritize work with the NRC to facilitate 5 GW of power uprates at existing nuclear reactors and have 10 new large reactors with complete designs under construction by 2030. This prioritization work includes utilizing the DOE Loan Programs Office to prioritize activities to support nuclear energy with a focus on funding restarting closed nuclear power plants, supporting power uprates at existing facilities, completing construction of nuclear reactors that were prematurely suspended in the past, constructing new advanced reactors, and improving the nuclear fuel supply chain more generally (see below).
• Requires a review of multiple pathways to increase the availability of uranium and plutonium for nuclear applications, including reviews of the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste as well as the potential use of reprocessing, which has not been used in the U.S. since the late 1970s.
• Directs DOE, in consultation with the NRC, to develop a plan to expand domestic uranium conversion capacity and enrichment capabilities to meet projected demand for low enriched uranium (LEU) such as what the current nuclear operating fleet uses, high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that advanced reactors use, and high enriched uranium (HEU).
• Calls for use of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4558(c)(1)) to develop new nuclear fuel supply chain capacity, including for milling, conversion, enrichment, deconversion, fabrication, recycling, or reprocessing.
• Encourages the expansion of the nuclear energy work force though prioritized use of discretionary funds for apprenticeships in nuclear energy-related occupations through industry organizations and employers, use of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funding for such programs, and through state and federal grants.

Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy

• Directs DOE to focus on the deployment of reactors at DOE-controlled facilities to establish fundamental technological viability of new designs in an expedited fashion. 
• Requires the creation of a pilot program for reactor construction and operation at DOE-controlled sites other than the DOE National Laboratories, and requires that the Secretary of Energy approve at least three reactors under this program with the goal of achieving criticality in each of the three by July 4, 2026.

Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for Nuclear Security 

• Calls for the deployment of Generation III+ reactors, small modular reactors, microreactors, and stationary and mobile reactors that can provide “resilient, secure, and reliable power” to critical defense facilities and DOD mission capability resources.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense, acting through the Secretary of the Army, to commence the operation of a nuclear reactor, regulated by the Army, at a domestic military base by September 30, 2028, and directs DOE to take actions to have a privately funded advanced reactor operational at a DOE facility by the fourth quarter of 2027.
• Directs the promotion of American nuclear exports, including aggressively pursuing at least 20 new Agreements for Peaceful Cooperations pursuant to Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act with other partner countries, as well as “expeditiously” reviewing and adjudicating export authorization requests for nuclear technology.
• Seeks to leverage the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation for equity and other financing and grant financing by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency of nuclear technology pilots, fuel supplies, and project preparation, and the Export-Import Bank to finance U.S. nuclear technology exports.

CONTRIBUTORS: 

Jack Duggan - 2025 Balch Summer Associate and J.D. Candidate at The University of Alabama School of Law