A Trump administration program is letting small nuclear companies race through testing of new reactor designs — and the speed is drawing scrutiny over whether safety reviews are keeping up.
Valar Atomics is among the companies taking part. The program clears a faster path for firms developing novel reactor technology, moving designs toward operational testing more quickly than the traditional federal review process would allow.
Critics aren’t sold on the approach. Some argue the accelerated timeline risks shortcutting the kind of rigorous vetting that nuclear safety has historically demanded — a concern that carries real weight when the technology in question can generate both electricity and catastrophic risk if something goes wrong.
The push fits within a broader Trump energy agenda that has targeted regulatory timelines across multiple sectors. For nuclear, the argument from backers is that drawn-out federal reviews have stalled American reactor development for decades while other countries moved forward. Opponents say those reviews exist for a reason.
Whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s oversight framework has been adequately preserved under the new program — or quietly sidelined — hasn’t been resolved publicly as of the program’s rollout this month.
