Executive Orders Ignite U.S. Nuclear Push
Leonard Hyman & William Tilles

Last Friday, the President signed four separate executive orders designed to accelerate nuclear energy development in the US. The first order directs the Department of Defense to deploy new reactor technologies at military installations. The second order, directed specifically at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, mandated much tighter deadlines for new reactor approvals, demanded a review of current radiological exposure risks, and called for further agency staffing cuts. The third order directs the Department of Energy to test and approve no fewer than three new reactor designs by July 4, 2026. But the fourth of these EOs, where the real money is, 1) it called for the direct federal funding for uranium fuels (particularly HALEU), , 2) begin construction on at least ten new gigawatt scale reactors by the end of the decade, 3) and the development of reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel waste. In this context, the President garnered headlines when he called for an expansion of our existing nuclear power generation fleet to 400 gigawatts, roughly four times its present size, further stating “We’re not going to have cost overruns.”

What’s interesting to us is that virtually all of these initiatives were contained in the Biden administration’s ADVANCE Act, signed in July of last year. This bipartisan bill contained many of the same elements as the President’s recent EOs: regulatory acceleration of new reactor designs, a focus on microreactors, approval of two new reactor designs for military installations, encouraging the use of brownfield (i.e. coal) sites for new nuclear deployment, and the allocation of federal funds for actual uranium purchases related to HALEU and TRISO fuels—the former preferred by SMRs and the latter used in molten salt and HTGRs. The ADVANCE Act was an acknowledgement that our existing regulatory process has given short shrift to advanced reactor designs using different coolants and fuels and a new, emerging industry—one with considerable political clout—was demanding faster regulatory approvals. However, the only glaring difference between Trump’s recent EO’s and Biden’s ADVANCE Act is that the recent EOs urged further big cuts in regulatory personnel, while demanding they do more on expedited timelines, while Biden’s bill called for staffing increases to address new issues. So to us, an honest headline for this should read, “Trump wholeheartedly embraces Biden’s nuclear policy with a few personnel tweaks.”

In signing these EOs, Trump was accompanied by the CEOs from Constellation Energy and Oklo Power. Constellation is one of the biggest nuclear power owner/operators in the US, while Oklo is developing a small, 75 mw liquid metal cooled breeder reactor. Stock prices of SMR developers like NuScale, Oklo, and others rallied sharply. In the past five days, shares of NuScale have gained about 55% while Oklo’s shareholders were rewarded with 52% gains. The point here is that the administration is clearly indicating continued support for this industry and the equity markets responded. As to the magnitude of the response, we have no views.

But despite all the SMR hoopla, there is only one gigawatt reactor design presently approved for the US, already built, and ready to go—the Westinghouse AP 1000 recently built by Southern Company, aka Plant Vogtle Units 3&4. However, as our readers know, Westinghouse is a subsidiary of a Canadian conglomerate. So it’s a bit awkward. We conclude with two thoughts. First, the President, by picking a fight with his Canadian trading partner, may hinder his ability to rapidly accomplish a nuclear renaissance. And second, nuclear energy is evolving as a global industry and tariff uncertainty is also problematic.

By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com

Leonard S. Hyman is an economist and financial analyst specializing in the energy sector. He headed utility equity research at a major brokerage house and has provided advice on industry organization, regulation, privatization, risk management  and finance to  investment bankers,  governments and private firms, including one effort to place nuclear fusion reactors on the moon. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and author, co-author or editor of six books including  America’s Electric Utilities: Past, Present and Future and  Energy Risk Management: A Primer for the Utility Industry. 

William I. Tilles is a senior industry advisor and speaker on energy and finance. After starting his career at a bond rating agency, he turned to equities and headed utility equity research at two major brokerage houses and then became a portfolio manager investing in long/short global utility equities. For a time he ran the largest long/short utilities equity book in the world. Before going into finance, Mr. Tilles taught political science .

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