By John Haughey, The Epoch Times (emphasis added),
A day after the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it had submitted a permit to install the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactor, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the breakthrough marks the beginning of a new era in commercial electricity generation and that maintaining the momentum of advanced nuclear power generation is the nation’s “next Manhattan Project.”
“America must be a leader in the commercialization of affordable and abundant nuclear energy,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. The Department of Energy “is working to advance the rapid deployment of next-generation nuclear technology, including small modular reactors.”
Eventually, perhaps within a decade, small modular reactors, or SMRs, will be mass-produced, portable, and ideal for “realizing our energy potential to support global AI leadership while meeting growing energy demand,” Wright acknowledged, calling the commercial deployment of such “next-generation technology … the challenge of our time.”
If that’s the case, Democrats and several Republicans wondered during a two-hour hearing on May 21 why the Trump administration is seeking to cut the department’s Office of Nuclear Energy budget by nearly 47 percent and the Office of Science budget by 87 percent in its fiscal year 2026 spending request.
“On the one hand, you and the president say you support U.S. dominance in energy and emerging technologies,” said Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), “but on the other hand, you propose to cut funding for the Office of Science by more than $1 billion” and the Office of Nuclear Energy by $408 million.
He said the still-vague spending request, prepared by the White House Office of Management and Budget, not the department itself, contradicts the Trump administration’s pledge to “win the artificial intelligence race against China.”
In the previous fiscal year, 2025, the Department of Energy budget allocated $8.6 billion to the Office of Science and nearly $770 million to the Office of Nuclear Energy—these are key allocations that leverage federal seed capital to attract private investment to fund demonstrations of new technologies.
Murray said such drastic funding cuts “will significantly undermine critical research programs in artificial intelligence, fusion, quantum computing, nuclear power, and critical minerals. How are investors and companies supposed to believe in partnering with you when your words and the words in the budget are two different things?”
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) asked Wright for confirmation that the budget includes funding for SMR development and research into other reactor technologies underway in her state, and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) stressed how important federal support for commercial nuclear power is to her state and the nation.
“The United States is at a turning point in energy production. This is not just for our country, but for the world,” Hagerty said. “Tennessee has been at the forefront of what you have called ‘Manhattan Project 2.0.’”
Small reactors and emerging nuclear technologies were just some of the topics discussed during the Senate’s first hearing on the Energy Department’s proposed $45.1 billion budget, which cuts funding for Biden-era “green energy” initiatives by $19.3 billion, including cutting three-quarters of approved allocations for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that did not include nuclear options.
The initial request is 9.4 percent lower than the department’s $52 billion budget for fiscal year 2025. In addition to a 25 percent increase in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (which manages the nation’s nuclear weapons programs), spending is being cut by 18.2 percent, slashing appropriations for the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure act by $15.2 billion and the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Agency by $2.6 billion.
Murray said President Donald Trump has emphasized cuts to “green energy” during his campaign and in his executive orders, but the massive reduction in investment in energy innovation is surprising.
“It’s like wrapping the future in gift paper and handing it to China,” he told Wright.
More money is coming
Wright assured senators that the administration will not hinder research and development of SMRs and other emerging technologies by pulling money from ongoing demonstration programs.
He said his department is reorganizing allocations for Biden-era “intermittent” energy programs, such as solar and wind, and is reorganizing its offices and staff to focus more on developing technologies that will triple the nation’s electricity generation capacity in the coming decades.
Wright acknowledged that the department has not yet finalized its official spending request, cautioning that in its initial state, “not every single line item reflects policy.”
“The nuclear industry is quite enthusiastic and confident that under this administration they have the best environment for commercial nuclear power generation,” he said. “Our goal is to mobilize tens of billions of dollars in private capital, using government allocations to underpin those investments.”
Wright said the department has offered land near or adjacent to its 16 national laboratories. “We’ve had a lot of offers to build on our land,” he said.
Britt said that communist China has “at least 28 nuclear reactors under construction, which is about half of all nuclear reactors under construction in the world,” so time is of the essence.
Wright said deregulation and enabling reforms are key priorities to ensure the United States’ ability to meet this challenge.
“China is moving full speed ahead in nuclear power. In fact, most of the reactors they are building are essentially copies of American reactor technology, theft,” he said. “But they are building them much cheaper and much faster, and they don’t have the huge bureaucratic regulatory burden that we have in the United States.”
Wright said that under current regulations, New York’s Grand Central Station “cannot be licensed as a nuclear reactor because its radiation levels are too high.”
The department’s message to commercial service providers is: “We are fast and efficient. We will help you get started. We will arrange creative incentives for you to build nuclear reactors on our premises. I think we will do it.”
Hagerty asked how the department can play “a pivotal role in advancing and achieving American energy dominance and grid responsibility” by promoting small reactors on a commercial scale.
Wright said it’s wise to be cautious when investing in “first-mover” prototypes to ensure taxpayer money is spent wisely on systems that work.
“I totally agree with you on promoting nuclear,” he told Hagerty, offering an analogy to illustrate patience as the department shifts its lending programs away from renewables toward nuclear and other baseload generation.
“Imagine if the Department of Defense sent a quote to defense contractors and said, ‘We want to buy tanks. We’ll pay full price for high-performance tanks, but you can deliver a tank that only moves part of the time, maybe when the sun is shining and fires maybe when the wind is blowing,’” Wright said of the intermittent-duty power generators.
The Biden administration paid full price for a “substandard tank” while providing subsidies to factories to build them, he said.
“What do you think will happen?” Wright asked. “You’re paid to deliver the worst tank and support. Of course you do.”
“And what will happen to your army? It’s not just the poor children in those tanks who are at risk, but also the children in all the other tanks who now have less capable partners in battle.”
