Something shocking happened this week: Bureaucrats approved a project ahead of schedule. Even better, it was for a nuclear project that promises to make energy production safer and cleaner than traditional reactors. The government still holds back America’s nuclear industry too much, but it’s a victory worth celebrating.
With a unanimous vote, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved construction on a new reactor in Wyoming. It was the first approval in nearly a decade. The relatively speedy approval is an encouraging signal to investors that the bureaucracy, which has long frozen the industry’s innovative potential, is thawing.
TerraPower, backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, still needs to overcome the most difficult hurdle in the NRC process: acquiring an operating license. That could pose some challenges. The company’s reactor design would use liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water, which hasn’t been done before in the U.S.
Still, the NRC completed a safety evaluation last year, and the technology isn’t new. China began testing a sodium-cooled reactor in 2023.
The speed with which the NRC has been able to review the TerraPower project is a testament to growing bipartisan support for climate-friendly nuclear energy. In June 2024, shortly after the company submitted its application, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill called the Advance Act to cut red tape.
Those reforms were crucial given the surging demand for new energy to power artificial intelligence. Startups are racing to build out that capacity with cutting-edge reactor technology, often funded by large tech companies, including Amazon, which was founded by Post owner Jeff Bezos. Should TerraPower succeed, it could pave the way for other projects to replicate its designs, which should then be even easier and faster to get through the NRC.
Nuclear projects inevitably draw naysayers, who warn the energy source is too risky to pursue. America’s adversaries know the technology can be safely managed. That’s why China is currently developing more reactors than the rest of the world combined. America is playing catchup. Anyone who wants energy to cost less should be excited about the U.S. producing more of it.
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