President Trump issues an executive order to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

May 23, 2025 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Donald J. Trump (R) issued an executive order to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Nuclear power does not require fossil fuels, does not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and a typical reactor produces far more power than wind mills and takes a tiny fraction of the land area of solar farms. Unfortunately, hysteria after the Three Mile Island incident and the China Syndrome movie about a nuclear meltdown led to a general reluctance to build new nuclear powerplants in the U.S. The disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima have only further led to a general reluctance about nuclear power. President Trump is anxious to jump start regulatory approval for new nuclear plants.

"Abundant energy is a vital national- and economic-security interest," stated President Trump. "In conjunction with domestic fossil fuel production, nuclear energy can liberate America from dependence on geopolitical rivals. It can power not only traditional manufacturing industries but also cutting-edge, energy-intensive industries such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing."

"Between 1954 and 1978, the United States authorized the construction of 133 since-completed civilian nuclear reactors at 81 power plants," Trump continued. "Since 1978, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized only a fraction of that number; of these, only two reactors have entered into commercial operation. The NRC charges applicants by the hour to process license applications, with prolonged timelines that maximize fees while throttling nuclear power development. The NRC has failed to license new reactors even as technological advances promise to make nuclear power safer, cheaper, more adaptable, and more abundant than ever."

"This failure stems from a fundamental error: Instead of efficiently promoting safe, abundant nuclear energy, the NRC has instead tried to insulate Americans from the most remote risks without appropriate regard for the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of such risk aversion," wrote President Trump. "The NRC utilizes safety models that posit there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure and that harm is directly proportional to the amount of exposure. Those models lack sound scientific basis and produce irrational results, such as requiring that nuclear plants protect against radiation below naturally occurring levels. 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. Recent events in Europe, such as the nationwide blackouts in Spain and Portugal, underscore the importance of my Administration's focus on dispatchable power generation –including nuclear power - over intermittent power. Beginning today, my Administration will reform the NRC, including its structure, personnel, regulations, and basic operations. In so doing, we will produce lasting American dominance in the global nuclear energy market, create tens of thousands of high-paying jobs, and generate American-led prosperity and resilience."

President Trump ordered the NRC to "Reestablish the United States as the global leader in nuclear energy; facilitate increased deployment of new nuclear reactor technologies, such as Generation III+ and IV reactors, modular reactors, and microreactors, including by lowering regulatory and cost barriers to entry.

Trump ordered the NRC to facilitate the expansion of American nuclear energy capacity from approximately 100 GW in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050.

He also ordered the NRC to "Employ emerging technologies to safely accelerate the modeling, simulation, testing, and approval of new reactor designs;."

The President also ordered the NRC to approve the extension of service life of existing plants and reactivate prematurely shuttered or partially completed nuclear facilities.

President Trump ordered the NRC to consider the benefits of increased availability of, and innovation in, nuclear power to our economic and national security in addition to safety, health, and environmental considerations.

Trump ordered the NRC to reform it regulations by establishing 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. He also ordered them to establish an expedited pathway to approve reactor designs that the DOD or the DOE have tested and that have demonstrated the ability to function safely.

Trump ordered the NRC to establish a process for high-volume licensing of microreactors and modular reactors, including by allowing for standardized applications and approvals and by considering to what extent such reactors or components thereof should be regulated through general licenses.

The order also establishes stringent thresholds for circumstances in which the NRC may demand changes to reactor design once construction is underway.

Trump orders the NRC to revise the reactor oversight process and reactor security rules and requirements to reduce unnecessary burdens and be responsive to credible risks, adopt revised and, where feasible, determinate and data-backed thresholds to ensure that reactor safety assessments focus on credible, realistic risks, reconsider the regulations governing the time period for which a renewed license remains effective, and streamline the public hearings process.