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Alsharq Tribune- AlOtaify
US President Donald Trump aims to support a massive expansion of nuclear power in the United States - which he has dubbed a "nuclear renaissance" - with a series of new decrees.
The goal, according to a senior US government official, is to quadruple the amount of electricity generated by nuclear energy within the next 25 years. "Under President Trump’s leadership, America will usher in a nuclear energy renaissance," a statement from the White House said.
"We are restoring a strong American nuclear industrial base, rebuilding a secure and sovereign domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, and leading the world towards a future fuelled by American nuclear energy," said White House Office of Science and Technology Director Michael Kratsios.
"These actions are critical to American energy independence and continued dominance in [artificial intelligence] and other emerging technologies," Kratsios said. The goal of increasing the installed power plant capacity from the current approximately 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050 seems hardly realistic given the necessary investments and approvals required
. Additionally, it is unclear where the large numbers of energy-hungry consumers for such a massive production expansion would come from.
The decrees signed by Trump are intended to facilitate the construction of new nuclear power plants of various sizes, significantly speed up the necessary approvals, ease credit provision and support new research into reactor design.
Furthermore, the production of the necessary nuclear fuel for the reactors is to be increasingly carried out in the US, both in terms of uranium mining and enrichment. The reprocessing of nuclear fuels is also to be supported.
The Department of Energy is also instructed, among other things, to advocate for the construction of 10 new, large reactors by 2030. The department should also work to use nuclear power to operate data centres for AI.
