Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner is expressing disappointment with how the Trump administration is handling nuclear energy and the emergence of small modular reactors.
Warner is bullish on the next-generation reactors, especially as a way to power sharply growing electricity demand from the data center sector, and he criticized President Donald Trump for not doing more to develop and approve them.
The president last year signed executive orders meant to ease nuclear energy development and reactor approvals following passage of the 2024 Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act in Congress. But Warner says Trump’s action’s haven’t been enough.
“One of the areas I thought Trump was going to be disruptive in a good way, but has not been yet, is nuclear power,” Warner said Friday during a briefing with POLITICO reporters and editors.
