Director Michael Kratsios
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Operation Gigawatt Summit
Deer Valley, Utah
Thank you. It is so good to be with you here in beautiful Utah. I want to thank Governor Cox for bringing us together today. Federalism is foundational to America’s greatness, and states like Utah are fundamental to the American Nuclear Renaissance.
As some of you may know, tomorrow marks one year since President Trump signed a series of Executive Orders on nuclear energy. On behalf of the Trump Administration, I am here to celebrate how far we’ve come in these past 12 months, and to share a vision of where we are headed next.
With last year’s executive orders, President Trump made the most transformational decision for civil nuclear power since President Eisenhower announced Atoms for Peace, in 1953. That heralded the first heyday of American nuclear energy. Within two decades, the country had 30 nuclear plants in operation, 55 under construction, and more than 80 in planning or under order. Americans looked forward to a future of nuclear trains, planes, and flying automobiles.
As you know, that momentum did not last. Prior to President Trump’s policies, we weren’t testing new reactors, we were shutting perfectly good reactors down. We were totally dependent on other countries for our fuel. The average NRC review time for licensing new reactors took more than 20,000 hours. The issuance of a combined operating license took 48-60 months. Receiving a license amendment for power uprates at existing facilities could mean waiting two-and-a-half years. And far, far too often, innovators spent all this time pulling together all this paperwork, just to be told no.
All of that has changed. The reforms and actions these orders called for are not merely an evolution in American energy infrastructure, they are bringing about a revolution for American power. The successes of the last year will be the foundations of a century of innovation.
One year-ago tomorrow was a starting shot in a renewed race to a brighter future. Old inertia has been reversed. This industry has been given new momentum. Now the policy, business, and technology innovators that fill this room are doing incredible things. Thank you, all of you, for sharing this vision and taking on these challenges.
Allow me to briefly describe some of the of the progress of the last 12 months.
You are building again. We are testing again. To accelerate development of cutting-edge SMR technology, the President set an ambitious goal for the DOE reactor pilot program: At least three test reactors would achieve criticality before the Fourth of July, 2026. Many people, maybe even some of you in this room, doubted this could be done. But we are confident we will see criticality from at least three program participants in the coming days and weeks, before that deadline. And I’m happy to say that DOE, NRC, and DOW are working together to create streamlined licensing pathways for successful participants, so they can avoid duplicative submittals when seeking future license approvals.
In addition, the American nuclear industrial base is getting the overhaul it needs to meet today’s electricity and national security requirements. In the last year alone, we produced twice as much domestic uranium as we had in the previous 6 years combined. More than $2-and-a-half billion has been invested in domestic uranium enrichment. And we are making progress in American nuclear exports and increased nuclear cooperation with our partners, including backing for American construction of reactors in allied countries.
Here at a celebration of Utah’s investment in the Nuclear Renaissance, I’m particularly glad to share the progress we are making with states in bringing the complete nuclear fuel cycle home, and its place in reindustrializing America. What to do with used nuclear fuel has been an unsolved problem for decades. With the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses concept, it’s finally unstuck.
The response to this proposal has been unbelievably enthusiastic, across the country. Since February, DOE has received more than 20 applications from interested states, including four states that unequivocally applied to take uncapped and unrestricted amounts of used fuel. The culture around nuclear power has changed so much, and for the better. We are confident again.
Nuclear energy is no longer viewed primarily as a liability to be managed or a nonproliferation risk to be suppressed, but once again as a powerful tool for enhancing national security. And though no one can deny the pride and importance of its nuclear legacy, the Navy will no longer be the main face of military nuclear energy. The Janus Program will deliver microreactors to military installations under U.S. Army oversight by 2028. We are on track, and the Air Force is getting in on these exciting developments, too. Energy resilience is necessary everywhere, but perhaps nowhere as much as at our vital national defense facilities.
President Trump’s policies have resulted in the radical reformation of the NRC. We are comprehensively modernizing the way nuclear facilities and materials are licensed in the United States. In the last year, the NRC has eliminated a host of unneeded regulatory and bureaucratic burdens while improving its focus on safety and efficiency. It is approving power uprates and license extensions inside a year, and taking a truly fresh approach to environmental review. The Robinson plant renewal was the fastest ever license review. The NRC has authorized renewals for 18 reactors, securing nearly 17,000 megawatts of power for 20 additional years. The NRC also recently issued the first commercial advanced reactor construction permit in decades. And it granted the first-ever license to commercially manufacture TRISO fuel. There’s more to do, but the public servants at the NRC are doing it, and the progress has been transformational.
The Trump Administration has prioritized American energy dominance from its first day back in office. This room needs no reminder, but everything we are working for—rebuilding the national industrial base, winning the AI race with China, reshoring semiconductor fabrication, taking back the drone industry, and ushering in a new space age of supersonics, flying cars, and rocket ships—means the supply of American energy and power has to go up.
Civilian nuclear is key to making that happen. President Trump’s vision for adding nuclear power to the grid includes restarting shutdown reactors and increasing power production by the country’s existing fleet. We will add 5 Gigawatts to the grid by 2030, equivalent to building five new large reactors. In fact, just the planned restarts of the Palisades in Michigan and the Crane Energy Center in Pennsylvania will add more than 1600 Megawatts to the grid within the next few years. Moreover, the NRC has proposed the nation’s first-ever regulatory framework for fusion machines, paving the way for an entirely new class of energy technology.
Today is not just about celebrating a year since President Trump signed his historic nuclear orders. This anniversary year, it is also an opportunity to celebrate more than 250 years of American exploration of the scientific frontier.
In 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a storm outside Philadelphia. In that experiment, the Founding Father of American science proved the electric nature of lightning. Two centuries later Franklin’s spiritual heirs lit four 200-watt lightbulbs with Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1 outside Arco, Idaho, inaugurating the era of civilian atomic power.
In the time between Franklin’s kite and the dawn of nuclear energy, America won her independence, became a continent-spanning industrial giant, and ushered in the age of Edison. Americans electrified the world, and with our new and growing power invented many of the fundamental building blocks of modern life.
We can do so again. As President Eisenhower said, launching Atoms for Peace, “the United States knows that peaceful power from atomic energy is no dream of the future.” I do not know what the future will hold, but I know that the steps we celebrate today will help to light the path to get there.
More importantly, in 2026, I know that America’s civilian nuclear program will give ourselves, our children, and our children’s children the energy necessary to sustain and build this great nation for the next 250 years.
Thank you.