Donald Trump to sign orders to revitalise US nuclear energy sector today | Why it matters?

US President Donald Trump is expected to sign orders as early as Friday aimed at revitalising the nuclear energy sector. Four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the initiative seeks to streamline the regulatory approval process for new reactors and bolster the nuclear fuel supply chain.

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Energy Secretary Chris Wright has likened the push to develop power infrastructure and data centres for artificial intelligence to a modern-day “Manhattan Project,” referencing the large-scale World War II effort to build atomic bombs, Reuters reported.

Cold War-era Defence Production Act

A draft summary of the upcoming orders indicates that Trump plans to invoke the Cold War-era Defence Production Act, declaring a national emergency over the US's reliance on Russia and China for enriched uranium, nuclear fuel processing, and components for advanced reactors, Reuters reported.

The summary also directed agencies to permit and site new nuclear facilities and directs the Departments of Energy and Defense to identify federal lands and facilities for nuclear deployment and to streamline processes to get them built.

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The draft order also urges the Energy Department to expand the construction of nuclear reactors through the use of loan guarantees and direct loans. During his first term, Trump utilised the Loan Programs Office (LPO) primarily to support a major nuclear project in Georgia. Although the LPO now has access to hundreds of billions in funding due to legislation enacted under former President Joe Biden, it has faced significant staffing reductions during Trump’s second administration.

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One of the sources said officials from the industry including the Nuclear Energy Institute and Constellation, a utility with the biggest U.S. reactor capacity, were invited to attend a signing ceremony Friday afternoon, according to a report by Reuters.

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The report further mentioned that the Trump administration has been debating four draft executive orders to boost nuclear power that sought ways to give the administration more power to approve reactors and reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the body of five panellists that approve reactors.

Why it matters?

Nuclear energy has gained bipartisan support in the US—Democrats favour it for its near-zero carbon emissions, while Republicans value its reliability over intermittent sources like wind and solar, which depend on battery storage to ensure a consistent power supply.

Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day back in office, in January. Energy Secretary Chris Wright described the initiative as a "Manhattan Project 2," highlighting its scale and urgency by comparing it to the massive World War II-era effort to develop nuclear weapons.

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It was the ‘Manhattan Project that’ eventually resulted in the creation of the two atomic bombs that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 killing thousands of people.

However, nuclear power also presents a significant challenge: it generates radioactive waste, and the US currently lacks a permanent disposal site for this long-lived material.

(With inputs from Reuters)