Nuclear Power

America's Nuclear Industry Doesn't Need Cronyism To Thrive

Privately funded nuclear reactors are achieving critical milestones on their own, but the Trump administration wants to prop up a single company.

Tosin Akintola | 6.26.2026 11:15 AM

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Energy Secretary Chris Wright declared Thursday, during an interview with CNBC at Idaho National Laboratory, that America had entered the "golden era" of nuclear energy. Wright's bold proclamation coincides with the Energy Department's launch this week of a $17.5 billion loan program, through its Office of Energy Dominance Financing, to "rebuild" America's nuclear supply chain.

The loan program will finance five projects "sponsored by utilities and energy companies nationwide" that will begin construction on 10 large-scale commercial nuclear reactors across the United States by 2030. It's a lofty goal, and there's certainly a demand nationwide for new energy generation capacity, but a federal loan program cuts against Wright's argument that "private capital, private innovators" are steering the nuclear renaissance.

All 10 reactors will be AP1000s built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the same........

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