Experts issue warning as US takes risky approach to new-age nuclear power: ‘Hype bubble’

Reshaping energy policy has been a major theme of President Donald Trump’s second term, with a “nuclear renaissance” emerging as a primary focus. The efficacy of the strategy has been questioned by some experts, with several recently speaking with the digital magazine Undark.

The outlet noted that Trump signed four separate executive orders in May intended to boost the domestic production of nuclear energy. In August, the U.S. Department of Energy announced 11 projects as part of its Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program and set a goal to “achieve criticality” in at least three of the 11 by July 4, 2026.

Such movement has been swift this year in the nuclear sector, one that has carried considerably more baggage than other energy sectors and for several reasons. Among them are a string of high-profile incidents like the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. 

Nearly 40 years later, nuclear energy has advanced significantly, a fact that experts don’t dispute. Nuclear isn’t exactly an unknown quantity in the United States, either. 

The Energy Information Administration has indicated that nearly 20 percent of American energy, as of 2021, was nuclear in origin. Now, at least one aim behind the current administration’s prioritization of the technology seems to be the desire to power energy-hungry artificial intelligence operations.

Although it isn’t fully classifiable as a clean energy source, nuclear is considered cleaner than energy generated by burning fossil fuels and is inherently low-carbon. Meanwhile, in a rapidly evolving energy landscape and amid skyrocketing utility costs nationwide, nuclear energy was perhaps the source least suited to an accelerated scale-up. 

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It’s a point that energy experts repeatedly made to Undark, noting that this particular nuclear push has centered on deregulation and pledges to eliminate “red tape” by reforming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Policy expert Allison Macfarlane, who chaired the NRC from 2012 to 2014, expressed skepticism that the initiative’s goals were grounded in reality. Macfarlane told the outlet that nuclear infrastructure is “too expensive to build, and it takes too long to build.”

Nuclear safety expert Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists warned of a “hype bubble that is driving unrealistic expectations” in the sector. Lyman was doubtful that deregulation was the key to advancing nuclear productivity in the U.S. 

“The message is that it’s regulation that has been the obstacle to deploying nuclear power, and if we just get rid of all this red tape, then the industry is going to thrive,” he told Undark. “I think that’s really misplaced.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology nuclear energy researcher Koroush Shirvan suggested that deregulation was effectively a smokescreen to obscure the real underlying issue: economics — nuclear energy production currently comes at very high costs.

“​​Even the license-ready reactors are still not economical,” Shirvan explained. 

Meanwhile, federal funding to support the expansion of solar and wind energy — clean, renewable options for a more resilient grid that are already market-tested and meeting end users’ needs — has been greatly reduced. 

In early October, Politico called the president’s support for nuclear energy “a rare exception to the Trump administration’s fealty to fossil fuels.” Rob Gramlich, president of the consulting firm Grid Strategies, told the outlet that the cancellation of billions of dollars for renewable energy projects could result in higher utility bills for consumers.

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