A nuclear energy boom, driven by AI hype and political urgency, risks repeating past failures that could undermine investor confidence, slow deployment, and weaken US national security objectives. 

It is perfectly fine if the creators of a publicly traded small nuclear company become multi-millionaires by selling some of their stock in the conceptual reactor firm. It’s also OK if the founders of a fledgling company promoting President Donald J. Trump nuclear reactors 1-4 become paper billionaires nine months after going public. This is the essence of the market’s power and the risk-taking that is required to resurrect America’s nuclear industry.

But it is not acceptable if an irrationally exuberant nuclear power bubble, or the selected political promotion of flawed technologies that will ultimately fail, causes the nuclear sector to melt down and undermine US national security.

At a recent nuclear finance conference, investors expressed wariness about funding unproven new reactors without a strong US government backstop. Their concerns are the inability to quantify timescale and risk and the rapidly dawning reality that “this is going to take longer…[and] cost more” than nuclear supporters are projecting. This is an emerging and potentially serious flaw in the Trump administration’s approach to resurrecting nuclear power.

Trump’s Nuclear Torrent

There’s not much discernible strategy behind the Trump administration’s expansive nuclear power ambitions, but there is a clear logic—supercharge all possible pathways to success and hope for the best. Like many of the Trump administration’s initiatives, its nuclear energy plan is designed to blast away bureaucratic inertia, wreck perceived regulatory impediments, and render results with the least resistance. 

There is a torrent of new programs that cover everything from subsidizing the restart of moribund reactors to supporting new fleet construction to accelerating the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs). While the Trump approach of pushing full throttle across the board has merit, there does not seem to be a plan for preventing overhyped nuclear Theranos.

Perhaps this is the shock therapy that the nuclear power sector needs to overcome stagnation and spark success. But right now, it seems questionable that the scattershot approach being pursued can meet the vital goal of aggressively scaling power reactors in America. 

One example is the 

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