WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite cuts to the Office of Nuclear Energy, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Wednesday the Department of Energy will lean heavily on the Loan Program Office to stimulate new nuclear reactor investments.
Wright spoke before the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development subcommittee about the DOE’s budget request highlighted in the fiscal year 2026 “skinny budget. Wright told a House subcommittee about the department’s proposed budget earlier this month.
The DOE has proposed to reduce the Office of Nuclear by $408 million from current fiscal year levels in its upcoming budget.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) questioned Wright about the Donald Trump administration’s proposal to cut the Office of Nuclear Energy by $408 million and $1.1 billion in the Office of Science. Murray also said cuts in the Office of Nuclear may deter private companies from investing into nuclear projects.
Wright countered that the nuclear industry will have “the best environment ever for commercial nuclear power” under the Trump administration. Wright said that the Loan Program Office is the most important tool the department has to offer to get private companies to invest in deploying first-of-a-kind nuclear technology.
“Get high quality equity money in front and bring government debt on these first few-of-a-kind reactors behind them, that’s the way to get it done,” Wright said in response to Murray.
Wright said new nuclear, especially small modular reactors (SMRs) are “critical” to the nation’s power generation needs.
“As you [Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)] and I have discussed before, it [SMR] is the critical technology that can scale wildly beyond where it is today, which is just electricity production, into huge scale electricity production and processed heat. An even larger more critical source of energy to make everything in the globe possible,” Wright said to Hagerty.
Wright still points to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and regulatory concerns stifling the nuclear and SMR deployment process. Wright said the DOE has to get the NRC “in touch with physical reality” in order to expedite its deployment process.
In a way to overcome regulatory concerns for SMRs, Wright said DOE is allowing reactor testing to be developed on DOE land, which would lead to accelerated deployment with proven technology.