White House fast-tracks nuclear R&D while mandating ‘gold standard science’

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to slash reactor-licensing reviews to 18 months and instructed every federal science agency to follow a newly defined “gold standard science” playbook that emphasizes reproducibility, transparent data and conflict-of-interest checks. The executive order calls for studies that are “reproducible, transparent, falsifiable, subject to unbiased peer review, clear about errors and uncertainties, skeptical of assumptions, collaborative, interdisciplinary, accepting of negative results, and free from conflicts of interests.”

The overhaul of nuclear regulation, which the White House framed as the biggest such overhaul in decades, also open federal land for new builds, let DOE labs test prototype designs and seek to rebuild a domestic uranium supply chain at a time when 94 aging reactors still supply about 19% of U.S. electricity.

The same package directs every federal research agency to follow “gold-standard science” principles of reproducibility and transparency.

The subject of AI was mentioned several times in the press conference. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for instance, noted: “What we do in the next 5 years related to electricity is going to determine the next 50 because it’s the first time in history where electricity can be translated into intelligence and we need that intelligence for every aspect of our economy but also for defense.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke on the subject, adding that the Department of Defense is including “artificial intelligence in everything we do.” He continued: “If we don’t, we’re not fast enough. We’re not keeping up with adversaries. You need the energy to fuel it. Nuclear is a huge part of that.”

Three CEOs of nuclear-focused firms were among those featured in a press announcement, including Joe Dominguez of Constellation Energy (largest U.S. operator) “In three places in this country, we are trying to license new reactors at sites that already have reactors. Yet I have to spend $35 million at each site just for NRC to do an analysis that says this is a good place for nuclear,” he said. “Well, guess what, we’ve been running nuclear in that community for four decades. Why are we even asking that question? I’d rather spend that $35 million, three times, $105 million, perfecting a design, start building the foundation and getting going. We need to do this for America.”

Dominguez noted that some of the “largest companies in the world,” referring to hyperscale cloud companies, need energy for AI. Constellation Energy is now working with them on the construction of the next generation nuclear. “These data centers run 24/7. Some of them will cost $300 billion and they want to run them all the time, so we can’t use intermittent resources,” he said. “We need something that’s always on 24/7 and nothing does that better than nuclear.”

Jacob DeWitte, Oklo CEO said in the same press conference: “We’re seeing private investment flow into the space like we’ve never seen before. We went public about a year ago—one of the most successful go-public outcomes for a transaction like that for a small nuclear company, because the market needs this and wants this… The physics are on our side, and these things help unleash this innovation to actually realize that potential.”

Scott Nolan, CEO of General Matter also spoke, describing the company’s aim to help “bring back the U.S.’s lead in producing nuclear fuel.” He explained, “Just like car engines need fuel, nuclear reactors need fuel. Right now the U.S. is completely dependent on other countries to make the key step of enrichment in this fuel, and these executive orders are going to pave the way for the U.S. to regain its lead. So we really appreciate it.”

Russia, through its state-owned company Rosatom, is currently the primary commercial supplier of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), a type of uranium enriched between 5% and 20% U-235.