Small nuke reactors are really coming online by next year, US energy secretary insists
- Reference: 1758044706
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/16/small_modular_reactors_2026/
- Source link:
In an [1]interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Wright said that the US would have at least one reactor online "before July 4th of next year," with several others coming online over the rest of 2026.
"It's not the back-end electricity production, but the whole nuclear system running, demonstrating how it will work," Wright added. "I think this will expedite final permitting and sales and commercialization of the reactors."
[2]
That's a lot of optimism given that small nuclear reactors (SMRs), which promise the best of nuclear energy – no carbon emissions, constant and readily available power, and high output – without the possibility of apocalyptic meltdowns, have been hyped up for years but so far failed to materialize.
[3]
[4]
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has only approved two SMR designs for commercial construction in the US, and both are actually iterations of the same design from NuScale, one able to produce [5]50 MW of energy and an upgraded [6]77 MW model . For reference, a typical datacenter uses between 5 and 10 MW, but the mega-datacenters favored by hyperscalers can require up to 100MW.
Approval doesn't mean much if you can't get one built, however, and that's been NuScale's biggest problem so far. The company partnered with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems to build its first-ever grid-connected plant, but those efforts were [7]abandoned in late 2023 due to cost overruns and a lack of interest from subscribers.
[8]
Along with being the only certified SMR designs in the US, NuScale's reactors also have a leg up thanks to their use of low-enriched uranium fuel - the same type used in the large-scale reactors of the prior nuclear age.
Other designs face an even more daunting challenge because they hope to use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which offers more active fissile isotopes, but is very scarce in the US. There's just a single company in the United States actively producing HALEU: [9]Centrus Energy , and it's not exactly scaled up to provide fuel for a significant number of SMRs. Centrus [10]said in June that it had achieved its milestone of producing 900 kilograms of HALEU in a year, but it knows that won't be enough.
"While the country is expected to need a much larger quantity of HALEU in the future, Centrus' existing production should be enormously valuable to the Department in helping to meet some of its earliest needs," a Centrus spokesperson told us.
[11]
The company also noted that 900 kilograms is only enough for around one or two small reactors, though we're told Centrus' full-scale HALEU production cascades could produce around six metric tons per year – a production level the company previously said would likely take a few years to reach.
What Wright's reactor dreams might look like
Wright may also be talking about an even smaller class of nuclear power plants known as microreactors, which are designed to produce just a few megawatts of electricity.
In 2024, the DoE broke ground on a microreactor at the Idaho National Laboratory [12]that it said "could become one of the first advanced reactors to operate in the US as early as 2026." The Energy Department has since added two [13]additional trailer-sized micro reactor designs to its Idaho test plans.
[14]Gates-backed nuclear plant breaks ground without guarantee it'll have fuel
[15]Canada OKs construction of first licensed teeny atomic reactor
[16]Energy buffs give small modular reactors a gigantic reality check
[17]Amazon-backed X-energy bags $700M more for itty-bitty nuke reactors that don't exist yet
Wright's statement on Mondayisn't the first time he's plugged his dream of multiple SMRs coming online by 2026 – he said much the same when speaking to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee [18]about the White House's proposed 2026 DoE budget.
The Energy Secretary pointed to a Trump [19]executive order from May that gave the DoE authority to bypass the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and approve reactor designs.
"We want to use that authority, because our fear is with the old way it worked, five years from now we will still be talking about 'soon, we're going to have SMRs,'" Wright said. "Some of them can be built quickly."
Trump signed another order the same day that [20]ordered the DoE to get at least one advanced nuclear reactor built and fired up "no later than 30 months" later. That would give DoE until November 2026 to get at least one SMR or other new-age nuclear reactor built and running - a bit more time than the Independence Day deadline Wright set for himself, but no less daunting given the fact the US has yet to build a single working advanced nuclear reactor, SMR or otherwise.
The Department of Energy didn't provide responses before publication. ®
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yn02rGnMpU
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aMnd9ytLxeS3ht8DZIm_ywAAAsY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aMnd9ytLxeS3ht8DZIm_ywAAAsY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMnd9ytLxeS3ht8DZIm_ywAAAsY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/24/us_nuclear_reactor_approval/
[6] https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nrc-approves-nuscale-powers-uprated-small-modular-reactor-design
[7] https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/idaho-smr-project-terminated
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aMnd9ytLxeS3ht8DZIm_ywAAAsY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/08/does_awards_nextgen_nuclear_fuel/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/08/does_awards_nextgen_nuclear_fuel/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMnd9ytLxeS3ht8DZIm_ywAAAsY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/department-defense-breaks-ground-project-pele-microreactor
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/trailer_sized_microreactors/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/11/terrapower_nuclear_plant/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/08/canada_smr_construction_approved/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/03/small_modular_reactor_criticism/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/06/amazon_backed_xenergy_funding/
[18] https://www.energy.senate.gov/hearings/2025/6/full-committee-hearing-to-examine-the-president-s-budget-request-for-the-u-s-department-of-the-energy-for-fiscal-year-2026
[19] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ordering-the-reform-of-the-nuclear-regulatory-commission/
[20] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/deploying-advanced-nuclear-reactor-technologies-for-national-security/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"Trump signed another order"
That's easy to do, isn't it. Sign a piec of paper.
How's about you get over you bone spurs and prove that you're worth something ?
Because your own wife doesn't seem to be very impressed.
I'm surprised. Almost.
We already have the technology to build and operate small reactors, and even have acceptable levels of safety when sealing humans in a small metal tube with said reactors, and submerging it in up to a thousand feet of water. I used to work for a company with both big nuke operating experience and at the time had ambitions in new big nuclear in the UK, so I know full well that civil nuclear permitting is a black hole of backward looking regulatory obstructiveness and stupidity...but, but, but....if government are really behind the concept, how difficult is it to tell Westinghouse or Rolls Royce to crimp out another submarine reactor, nail a genset on the end, and link it to the grid? At a push the grid connection and genset commissioning can be done in days, maybe a year and a half to get an additional sub reactor produced.
I suspect there's one simple problem, and that's a governmental obsession of "market forces" and "private capital". If that's right, the wankers of government need to accept that the heat death of the universe will arrive before the private sector will take on the risks of nuclear, big or small.
Re: I'm surprised. Almost.
I'm positive they'd jump at the order. Now remind me again what they charge for one of those?
Re: I'm surprised. Almost.
Just make sure they are built to acceptable safety standards(in decending order of likelyhood)
1. Must not leak
2. Must make power
3. Safe when powered down
4. Safe in the event of coolant failure
5. Safe for the next 11 billion years.
6. Safe from terrorist attack
7. Safe from having an aircraft crash into it.
8. Safe from a mag 9.3 earthquake.
9. Safe from a 10 metre tsunami
10. Safe from a direct hit from a metorite.
11. Safe from a godzilla attack
12. Safe from a government minister who knows what they are doing
Unlike most of the bizarre collection of crackpots, weirdos and sociopaths Trump has assembled to foster his Great Leap Backwards, Wright actually has some credentials other than bombast and a generally rotten attitude. He has bachelors and masters degrees in Engineering and runs an energy company. It therefore seems conceivable that he could know what he's talking about.
Personally, I think Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) will prove to cost more overall and be more aggravating to permit, build, operate and decommission than a conventional reactor with the same total energy output. But it's clear that some SMRs are going to be built. And if that's the case, the US needs to get moving on them if it doesn't want to be buying the technology from China which is claiming they will bring their first ACP100 unit online in 2026.
"It therefore seems conceivable that he could know what he's talking about."
If he does it's likely he has in mind something such as one of the micro-reactors already under construction as mentioned in the article. Failing that Musk could knock up something that looks like one with a few used Tesla batteries turning a morot turning the gen set. Or maybe just a man inside winding a handle on the gen set.
Before July 4th?
They do know that even the worst built reactor will just melt down and now blow up with fireworks, yes?
Approvals for a new design
And they are going to get that done and the permissions for a site in less than 10 years? Cut a line of that for my nose.
The main job of the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency is to say no and they have years of experience saying "no". To say "yes" creates a hot potato.
Consumer label
This Reactor is not recyclable. At end-of-life, please dispose of responsibly.
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Prices start from as little as $10 Bn.
* [greenland] Note that your site may be directly beneath a US military base, in which event safety standards will be rigorously brown-enveloped.