Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality

Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy

This executive order directs the Department of Energy to dramatically accelerate testing and deployment of advanced nuclear reactors by streamlining approval processes, creating a pilot program for non-laboratory reactors, and reforming environmental reviews. It sets a goal of achieving criticality in three pilot reactors by July 4, 2026, and aims to enable qualified test reactors to become operational within 2 years of application submission.