White House Pushes to Unlock Nuclear Energy with 'UPRISE'

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Christina Ruffini** (0:14)
Well, last year, President Trump signed four executive orders aimed at bolstering the nuclear energy industry in the United States, including one telling the Department of Energy to approve at least three reactors by July 4th, 2026 Yes, this year. The Department of Energy has also altered or removed some of the regulatory framework around the industry to expedite the build out of new next-gen reactors, which has raised some questions about safety. It's at a time when the US and the world are, of course, drastically increasing energy needs to power AI. Joining us now to talk about this is US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Ho Nieh. Chairman, thank you for joining us.

**Emily Graffeo** (0:52)
I know you had a big event at the White House today. I wanted to ask you, has there been any progress in the effort to get these big nuclear projects going? I know they were supposed to be at least three by July 4th, 2026 That's coming up pretty soon and then hopefully 10 big reactors under construction by 2030 But so far, we haven't seen any actual tangible announcements. Can you give us a status update?

**Ho K. Nieh** (1:14)
Sure, I can. So there absolutely has been major progress being made since President Trump issued his nuclear executive orders just a year ago last month.
As you have heard, the Department of Energy has announced a criticality with one of their 11 reactors going through the pilot project, which is a very big milestone in terms of reactor development. What the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is doing as the nation's nuclear safety regulator, we are preparing the licensing frameworks for applications for commercial deployment. So today, I was at the White House here in support of an event that the Department of Energy is sponsoring to up rate the power output of America's existing nuclear reactors. And the NRC has a very critical role in doing that. And we are doing that to ensure that we're going to provide credible, predictable, and timely safety decisions so that we do not delay America's existing nuclear power plants in being upgraded to really meet America's urgent demand for electricity. So over the past 12 months, the NRC has taken some major steps to reform its licensing frameworks and how it conducts its safety regulatory reviews. We have actually renewed the operating licenses for 18 of the operating power reactors in the United States so they can continue operating for another 20 additional years. And we're expecting to receive more applications to increase the power outputs of the nation's reactors over the coming years.

**Emily Graffeo** (2:41)
I want to talk to you about those upgrades first. So you're saying the power upgrades could add about 2.5 gigawatts of Cassidy by 2027 and about five by 2029 But you said the regulatory environment is increasingly central to the story. So does that mean that you are taking away regulations or lessening them to make that happen? How are you making this happen? And are you concerned that by streamlining some of those regulations, you might be taking away safety guardrails?

**Ho K. Nieh** (3:08)
Just to be clear, the NRC is not lowering its standards for safety. We are actually increasing our focus on safety by really looking at what matters most when we do our licensing activities. So we are introducing efficiencies in our internal workflows. We are introducing greater mechanisms for accountability and how the federal government manages its resources and oversees its work. So the NRC remains a strong regulator and we continue to do so, even in light of all the activity here, because it is important that we continue to deliver our safety decisions in a way that is credible.

**Christina Ruffini** (3:41)
Chairman, what regulations did you need to streamline?

**Ho K. Nieh** (3:45)
So, there are a lot of regulations in how the United States government oversees and licenses the reactors in this country. There are huge volumes of regulations and we are taking a very close look at all of those regulations because many of these regulations were put in place nearly 70 years ago when we knew much less about these reactor technologies than we know today. So there were conservatisms that were included in these regulations that are no longer needed today based on the increased state of knowledge and the high levels of safety performance that exists in these facilities as well as the ones that are being designed.

**Emily Graffeo** (4:23)
Can you give us an example though of one particular regulation that you ever moved because you thought it was overly arduous?