States Urged to Step Up in Matching Federal Momentum for Developing Nuclear Energy

Reactor developers are calling on lawmakers to trim permitting, revise siting rules, expand workforce programs, and de-risk investment by courting partnerships.

TerraPower's Natrium reactor will be built in the closing Kemmerer Coal Mine in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a reanimation of site formerly used for energy development being replicated in other states such as Indiana, which recently created 40 'energy development zones' on sites, including defunct coal mines, where energy was formerly or currently produced. John Haughey/The Epoch Times

BOSTON—Congress this decade has passed bipartisan bills chiseling back regulatory and financial hurdles hampering nuclear reactor development, such as 2024’s ADVANCE Act, while President Donald Trump in May issued four executive orders aimed at quadrupling the nation’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

Unless states follow through with reciprocal urgency, little of this federal momentum will matter beyond the Beltway, nuclear energy experts and industry leaders warn.