(A)Political - May 24th

Good morning everyone,

Busy week for 47! Let’s see why!

Trump moved against Harvard by freezing grants, threatening its tax-exempt status, and pulling foreign-student authorization, sparking court injunctions and a “whole-of-government” review. He issued sweeping orders to fast-track nuclear reactors, boost domestic uranium via the Defense Production Act, and reopen federal lands for fossil fuels under an “all-of-the-above dominance” energy agenda. Trump approved Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion purchase of U.S. Steel after securing commitments to keep Pittsburgh headquarters, invest $14 billion, and submit to CFIUS oversight, claiming it will create 70,000 U.S. jobs.

• Trump Goes Nuclear

• Harvard Sees Red

• Steel Of The Century

Trump Goes Nuclear

_{By: Atlas}

President Donald Trump capped months of regulatory reversals and emergency declarations by issuing four executive orders on May 23 that collectively recast U.S. energy strategy around an aggressive expansion of nuclear power, expanded uranium production, and continued support for domestic oil, gas, and coal. The nuclear package—signed the same day Trump renewed drilling leases in Alaska’s North Slope—forms the centerpiece of what aides call an “all-of-the-above dominance agenda” designed to meet surging electricity demand from artificial-intelligence data centers while reducing reliance on foreign fuel supplies.

Key Elements of the Nuclear Orders

• Fast-track licensing: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must rule on applications for new reactors within 18 months and on license renewals within 12 months—deadlines that critics say are unprecedented for a safety agency.

• Regulatory overhaul: A White House fact sheet instructs the NRC to adopt “science-based radiation limits” and create a streamlined path for micro-reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs), including standardized applications.

• Defense Production Act (DPA) invocation: Trump declared a national emergency over U.S. dependence on Russian and Chinese enriched uranium and directed Energy and Defense to secure domestic supplies using DPA authority.

• Federal-land siting: The Interior and Energy departments must identify federal lands and military bases suitable for pilot reactors, bypassing some state permitting processes.

• Pilot deployment: Three experimental reactors are to be operational by July 4, 2026, with at least one located on a defense installation.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called the initiative “a Manhattan Project for electrons,” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said constant power from modular reactors is vital to cybersecurity and weapons-testing ranges.

Complementary Fossil-Fuel Moves

Parallel actions seek to expand conventional supplies:

1. Alaska North Slope: Interior re-approved the Willow and Liberty projects, projecting 180,000 barrels per day by 2030.

2. Permitting Reform: Trump’s first-day National Energy Emergency order waived certain Clean Water Act reviews for interstate pipelines and liquefied-natural-gas terminals.

3. Coal Leasing: The Bureau of Land Management lifted the 2016 moratorium on federal coal leases, citing grid-reliability concerns.

The White House argues pairing 24/7 nuclear with domestic hydrocarbons ensures redundancy and “energy security hedging.”

Industry Reactions

Executives from Constellation Energy, Oklo, TerraPower, and NuScale Power attended the signing. Constellation CEO Joseph Dominguez said data-center operators “can’t rely on intermittent resources” and welcomed the 18-month NRC deadline. Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte called the orders a “watershed” that will “bring shelf-ready U.S. technology to market.”

Utility analysts note that large gigawatt-scale reactors still face cost overruns—as evidenced by Georgia’s Vogtle—while SMRs remain unproven at commercial scale. The administration counters that loan guarantees and DPA tools will bridge financing gaps.

Safety and Proliferation Critiques

Former NRC chair Gregory Jaczko warned the reorganization is a “guillotine to the nation’s nuclear safety system.” The Union of Concerned Scientists said trimming NRC staff and imposing hard deadlines could pressure reviewers to approve designs before thorough risk assessments.

Non-proliferation experts, including ex-Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, cautioned that creating markets for reprocessed plutonium “could expand stocks of weapons-usable material.”

The White House fact sheet insists safeguards remain and points to U.S. leadership in setting global standards if domestic capacity grows.

Congressional Landscape

Republican lawmakers praised the orders; the House Energy Dominance Council, chaired by Burgum, pledged to codify NRC timelines. Yet appropriators questioned why the FY 2026 budget trims $360 million from DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy even as deployment goals expand.

Democrats warned that overriding NRC independence may violate the Atomic Energy Act. Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper requested a Government Accountability Office review of whether the executive orders exceed statutory authority.

Supply-Chain and Workforce Initiatives

To bolster uranium supplies, DOE will fast-track grants for idle Wyoming and Texas mines and launch an “American Enrichment Consortium” to scale laser-enrichment. The administration also revived the Yucca Mountain geologic-repository study, shelved in 2010, to address spent-fuel storage.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced a “Nuclear Jobs Corps” apprenticeship program aimed at retraining fossil-fuel workers for reactor construction. The administration projects 200,000 new jobs if capacity rises from 100 GW to 400 GW by 2050.

Grid and Climate Implications

The Energy Information Administration reports nuclear currently supplies 19 percent of U.S. electricity. Quadrupling capacity to 400 GW would raise that share above 50 percent, assuming modest demand growth, potentially displacing coal emissions.

Trump, however, framed nuclear primarily in security and economic terms, seldom invoking climate benefits. Critics argue sidelining wind and solar incentives—via Inflation Reduction Act rollbacks—could slow overall decarbonization. Supporters respond that firm nuclear power eases grid balancing and reduces dependence on natural-gas peaker plants.

Implementation Challenges

• NRC Resistance: Staff turnover and culture shifts may impede 18-month reviews.

• Capital Costs: Even with loan guarantees, large reactors run $7–10 billion each. Small reactors face first-of-kind premiums.

• Waste Storage: Restarting Yucca Mountain requires congressional funding and Nevada’s political consent.

• Uranium Bottlenecks: Expanding enrichment domestically could take five years; interim stocks still rely on allies such as Canada and Australia.

Outlook

Trump’s energy directives mark the most sweeping U.S. nuclear push since the 1970s, combined with continued fossil-fuel expansion under the National Energy Emergency. Success will depend on regulatory execution, capital flows, and resolving safety and waste concerns. Early milestones—pilot reactors by July 2026 and NRC’s new rulebook by late 2026—will indicate whether an “American nuclear renaissance” is on track or hindered by the very complexity the orders seek to override.

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