The Trump administration, myriad controversies aside, did something very important for the planet this year. So much so that it will probably change America’s fortunes for the better – perhaps everyone else’s too. It was an announcement about energy. But, first, a little background.
One of the most egregious missteps from the largely well-intentioned environmental movement, one that has had disastrous effects on everything from air pollution to carbon emissions, the tilt of geo-political power to oil-rich autocracies, was the anti-nuclear lobby.
Post-World War II, the US had a simple plan: take the same atom that produced the bomb and turn it into something that could light your home. Enter the Atomic Energy Commission, a group of optimists who genuinely believed that nuclear power could be cheap, clean and futuristic. Lobbyists rolled out charts, diagrams and shiny slogans like ‘Atoms for Peace’ (a US initiative launched by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 at the height of the Cold War to support peaceful uses of nuclear – electricity generation and medical/industrial applications). For a brief golden period, the future looked atomic.
Then came the environmentalists. With clipboards, manifestos and a flair for apocalypse storytelling, they discovered that nothing works better than sensationalism. Their strategy was simple but effective: highlight worst-case scenarios, dramatise rare accidents and make every nuclear plant seem like a risk too far. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl gave them ample ammunition.
By the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-nuclear lobby had achieved near-mythical efficacy. They could turn a minor mechanical glitch into a horror story fit for Hollywood (made manifest by the film The China Syndrome in 1979). Anti-nuclear campaigns were a masterclass in PR for the fearful. They leveraged media, grassroots activism and celebrity endorsements to turn cautious oversight into outright paranoia. It was a precursor to the power of social media – scare the hell out of citizens who don’t know the details, and you have an engaged and outraged audience.
Lawmakers took notice and applied the brakes.
Nuclear lobbyists found themselves in a constant uphill battle, trying to convince regulators and the public that reactors could be safe and waste manageable, all while being lectured by activists about how even the possibility of radiation exposure was morally unacceptable. In effect, the environmental movement became a remarkably effective architect of delayed projects, cancelled plants and skyrocketing construction costs.
Negligible
This is not to say that there weren’t accidents. There was Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. But the damage was limited and the human cost was negligible compared to lives lost in the long supply chain of traditional energy generation. No matter – the environmental lobby essentially shut down all nuclear power research and development for decades.
Around 2000, there were some green shoots of a new approach. Previously anti-nuclear icons and stalwarts like Stewart Brand (author of Whole Earth Catalog), Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace) and, most importantly, James Lovelock, one of the celebrity progenitors of the green energy movement (and author of The Gaia Hypothesis), had changed their minds about nuclear. They had one common theme – wind and solar and the rest were OK, but only nuclear energy could replace fossils at scale.
So research started again, and it has been going on for 20 years. Unfortunately, ossified regulation and process have hobbled this nascent new industry, now brimming with modern designs for low-cost, high-safety, easily manufacturable small modular reactors. Exactly zero have been deployed, all trapped in the red tape of history. That’s where the Trump administration stepped in.
Earlier this year, the government took a scythe to nuclear regulation. On 23 May 2025, Trump signed a set of executive orders related to nuclear power and reactor deployment. One of those orders, specifically ‘Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy’, establishes a pilot programme under the Department of Energy to support advanced reactor demonstrations outside the national laboratories and, critically, outside of the national regulator, the NRC.
Achieve criticality
That order sets a goal that at least three test reactors (using the DOE authorisation process) will achieve criticality (i.e. become operational) by 4 July 2026.
On 15 August, a shortlist of 11 companies was announced, all with their own SMR designs.
They are:
- Aalo Atomics Inc.
- Antares Nuclear Inc.
- Atomic Alchemy Inc.
- Deep Fission Inc.
- Last Energy Inc.
- Natura Resources LLC
- Oklo Inc.
- Radiant Industries Inc.
- Terrestrial Energy Inc.
- Valar Atomics Inc.
This is a really big deal. The 4th of July (the 250th birthday of the US) is a stupidly short time for a prototype to become operational, given the many decades of nuclear construction schedules that we have come to expect. And yet, with all the doomsaying about the end of the American empire, it seems to me that the country’s vaunted ingenuity and technological prowess is perfectly suited to the grasping of this prickly nettle.
While the government is not actually funding the companies, they have swept aside all other obstructions, making capital much easier to find. One does not have to be a venture capitalist to understand the rewards that await the winners in this race.
Age-old dream
The age-old dream of infinite, low-cost, safe and portable energy generation may well be realised a mere nine months from now. Downstream applications are well beyond the lights in your home – they trickle down to everything from fertilisers for food production to steel production for bridges and buildings to the components in chips. And, of course, power for AI data centres.
Whether Trump succeeds or fails at his many other furiously contested aspirations, this may end up being his crowning achievement and his secured place in history.
[Image: reve.art]
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