With the recent winter storm damaging a large swath of the United States, the issue of energy has come to the forefront of national debate. Seeking Alpha reported on January 27, 2026, “the largest U.S. power grid operator, PJM Interconnection, said Tuesday it issued extra alerts to transmission and generation firms, and warned demand will exceed 147 GW, an all-time high for winter,” and “peak demand could exceed 130 GW for seven straight days, a winter streak never before experienced.” Now is a good time to make it easier to roll out clean nuclear facilities that can avoid rolling blackouts and energy shortages in the future.
President Donald J. Trump has proven that he wants to make American domestic energy production great again. People forget that the United States once pioneered nuclear technology. President Dwight D. Eisenhour’s push for nuclear deterrence in the 1950s led to a vibrant peaceful use of nuclear energy, but the United States has since fallen behind many other nations, including our strategic adversaries.
President Trump signed four groundbreaking executive orders on nuclear power in May of last year. Progress has been made in the testing and demonstration of reactors on federal land and treats new plants like strategic infrastructure. However, there is more work America needs to do to scale up deployments and meet the challenges we are facing (today and during this cold winter) so that we don’t have to complain later that we have not taken sufficient action to avoid future rolling blackouts.
It is a true outrage that Americans must deal with exorbitant energy prices and the possibility of energy rationing. We live in the world’s largest economy with just short of $32 trillion in economic output projected for this year. American citizens can brag about high income levels, great access to tech, and access to amazing assets like cars and homes. Government policies of the past that deterred nuclear energy have put us in a situation where our energy access is inferior to that of many developed nations. This needs to change.
There are a few ideas that would boost nuclear energy deployment. The United States has built 94 reactors using dozens of designs. A better idea would be for the government to serve as an anchor customer and standardize federal deployments around a single design to drive down costs by economies of scale, fortify the domestic supply chain, and minimize licensing challenges. Furthermore, we should consider using South Korea’s model of building reactors in pairs. This allows crews to work on projects in close proximity and allows the transmission infrastructure to be more efficient. The United States should follow that model. These two good ideas are a great start.
Another way to expedite the launch of new reactors is to create a vibrant domestic manufacturing sector for nuclear components. This might take some time, but it is far superior to not engaging at all and eliminates the need for foreign sources dependency. Another idea is to streamline the regulatory process that maintains safety, security, and environmental safety by conducting reviews in parallel rather than sequentially, reducing the overall time needed for approval.
President Trump has been revolutionary in streamlining the regulatory process, and it would be great for American energy consumers to have decisions completed in a year or less. That is achievable. After a streamlined regulatory process, it would take approximately three years of construction to build. This would create new jobs while putting Americans in a situation where energy prices will come down in four years.
In addition to actions the Trump Administration could take to forward the ball through regulatory changes, Congress should be more active in this process. Congress should have hearings to push the process along and help educate Americans on the fact that the United States, with a few reforms, can regain leadership in the deployment of new nuclear power plants. Congress could take up legislation to expedite the process of streamlining the approvals and new manufacturing of plants.
With a few reforms, the prospect of politically unpopular rolling blackouts will be a relic of the past. With all the progress to date, it would be political malpractice not to go the next mile and create a situation where Americans can have access to inexpensive and clean energy sources.