After a few weeks (mostly) offline, I’m back with some amazing news to share.
Grace Koopman arrived a few weeks ago. Our seventh child, fourth daughter. A tiny new thread in the wild and wonderful story of our family. She’s healthy, perfect, and already deeply loved by her (very
NEPA is the single greatest procedural barrier to American progress. It marks the dividing line between an America that built with confidence and an America that regulates itself into paralysis.
So much of what’s been broken in DC comes down to the permanent coalition class—a self-replicating blob of nonprofit careerists who don’t advance policy, just attend meetings, sign each other’s letters, and mindlessly echo the same dead talking points. No new ideas. No results.
18 months ago we were told a 6-month pause on AI was necessary to protect humanity from its catastrophic effects.
We didn’t pause. We didn’t slow down.
Clear the panic was misplaced, no?
Quite a few folks have asked if regulating Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could change under President Trump. Short answer: Yes!
This could be a signature Day 1 win. Unleash American nuclear innovation through executive action - here's how to fix decades of regulatory overreach:
2/ Fun fact: Getting initial approval from the NRC for a new reactor design takes longer than:
- Building the Pentagon
- Fighting World War II
- The entire Apollo program
Great system we've got here. Totally working. 🙃
3/ Small modular reactors: "We've engineered these to be basically impossible to melt down!"
NRC: "Cool story. That'll be $500 million and 2 million hours of paperwork. Just for initial approvals”
This is literally what happened to NuScale. Not exaggerating.
1/ Texas, Utah, and nuclear startup Last Energy got tired of watching bureaucrats strangle America's energy future with red tape that *checks notes* isn't even legal. Last week they filed a lawsuit to put it to an end.
And the NRC's logic is wild: They regulate a university
President Trump just signed a set of EOs that will launch a golden era of American nuclear energy.
Clean, reliable, abundant, and made in the USA.
This isn’t just good policy.
It’s national security.
It’s industrial strength.
It’s economic freedom.
These moves put America
.@POTUS signs an Executive Order directing the reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in order to reduce our dependence on foreign technologies, decrease regulatory barriers, and support our domestic nuclear industry.
5/ The law LITERALLY SAYS the NRC can only regulate reactors that could affect national security or public safety.
Their response: "What if we just... ignored that part?"
And they've been doing it the entire time!
6/ Texas and Utah: "Our populations are exploding and we need power!"
NRC: "Best we can do is 9 years of paperwork."
Time to end this nonsense. States can handle safety regulation of small reactors that are literally safer than getting an X-ray.