Is Washington’s Nuclear Renaissance Just An Illusion?

Congress is taking another crack at removing regulatory barriers to America’s nuclear energy industry, but the latest slate of bills still has a long way to go before reaching President Donald Trump’s desk.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce advanced six nuclear energy bills Sept. 2 addressing nuclear fuel, licensing and the federal workforce responsible for reviewing new projects. The full committee ordered the measures reported after they previously cleared the Energy Subcommittee on July 14, according to the Congressional Record. None of the six bills has passed the House or Senate.

“We’re really having to start this industry back over and recreate it,” Jason Isaac, founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The legislation would change requirements governing nuclear fuel recycling and uranium enrichment facilities, eliminate mandatory Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) hearings when no party contests certain license applications and address compensation for senior NRC staff, according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The U.S. had 96 operating commercial nuclear reactors across 57 power plants in 28 states as of March 2026, with the reactors averaging roughly 44 years old, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Nuclear energy holds “tremendous promise as an affordable, reliable and environmentally friendly power source,” James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute, told the DCNF.

The bills come as the Trump administration separately pushes to expand nuclear generation. Trump signed a series of executive orders in May 2025 directing changes to NRC rules and other federal policies governing nuclear development.

“The biggest obstacles to nuclear power are political opposition,” Taylor told the DCNF, before highlighting economic and environmental arguments made by anti-nuclear groups.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Brett Guthrie, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said during the Sept. 2 markup that the legislation is intended to “clarify pay authority, improve transparency, and eliminate unnecessary Atomic Energy Act requirements.”