The Arkansas Nuclear One power plant in Russellville, Arkansas, April 2024. Trump’s nuclear executive orders launched the most significant federal effort in decades to restore US nuclear leadership. (Shutterstock/Troy A. Thomas)

How Trump’s Nuclear Executive Orders Jump-Started the US Nuclear Revival

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Trump’s nuclear executive orders did more than signal support for nuclear energy—they launched the most significant federal effort in decades to restore US nuclear leadership.

President Donald Trump’s four nuclear-related executive orders signed on May 23, 2025, may ultimately be remembered as the most consequential federal intervention in nuclear energy policy since the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Taken together, the orders represent far more than a symbolic endorsement of nuclear energy. They established an aggressive, whole-of-government strategy to accelerate advanced nuclear reactor deployment, rebuild the domestic nuclear fuel cycle, reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and restore America’s industrial leadership in nuclear technology. One year later, the results are noticeably tangible.

The four executive orders, “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” “Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security,” “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” and “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” were designed to address the fundamental bottlenecks that have constrained the American nuclear sector for decades: licensing delays, inadequate fuel supply, workforce shortages, and the erosion of domestic manufacturing capacity.  

NRC Reform Is Starting to Unlock Advanced Nuclear Deployment

The most immediate and visible success has been the administration’s effort to reform the NRC. For years, reactor developers complained that the licensing process was unpredictable, excessively lengthy, and poorly suited for advanced reactor technologies such as sodium-cooled fast reactors, high-temperature gas reactors, and microreactors. The executive order directed the NRC to modernize licensing timelines and establish a more risk-informed........

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