Reinvigorating The Nuclear Industrial Base

The order seeks to reduce reliance on foreign nuclear technology and fuel while supplying reliable power for civilian, digital, and national-security needs. It sets federal priorities for new reactors, existing plant upgrades, fuel-cycle infrastructure, financing, and workforce development.

What the order does ​

• Directs a 240-day federal review and policy plan for spent-fuel management, recycling, reprocessing, waste disposal, valuable isotope recovery, and fuel transportation.
• Requires a 120-day plan to expand domestic uranium conversion and enrichment capacity for civilian reactors, naval propulsion, tritium production, and nuclear weapons.
• Replaces an unspecified Energy Department surplus-plutonium disposal program, except for obligations to South Carolina, with processing that makes plutonium available as advanced-reactor fuel.
• Directs voluntary agreements with domestic nuclear companies to coordinate fuel procurement, recycling, reprocessing, and supply-chain capacity, backed where lawful by federal contracts or guarantees.
• Targets 5 gigawatts of added output from existing reactors and 10 fully designed large reactors under construction by 2030.
• Prioritizes federal financing for restarting closed plants, completing suspended projects, building advanced reactors, increasing existing-plant output, and strengthening the fuel supply chain.
• Orders an assessment of closed nuclear plants as possible energy hubs supporting military microgrids.
• Prioritizes federal support for mature advanced-nuclear companies and expands nuclear apprenticeships, technical education, grants, and access to national-laboratory resources.

Who it affects ​

• Nuclear power plant owners, reactor developers, uranium processors, fuel manufacturers, and spent-fuel recycling companies.
• Military installations and Defense Department nuclear-energy personnel.
• Workers, apprentices, college students, universities, and technical-education programs focused on nuclear careers.
• Communities near operating, closed, proposed, or fuel-cycle nuclear facilities.