A huge nuclear deal announced by the Trump administration earlier this week provides a multi-billion-dollar in
nd approvals for new Westinghouse reactors—an unprecedented structure that critics say poses environmental and safety risks.
Under the agreement with Westinghouse Electric’s owners, Canada-based Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management, the U.S. government will a
rrange financing and help secure permits and approvals for $80 billion worth of Westinghouse reactors.
In return, the plan offers the U.S. government a path to a 20% s
hare of future profits and a potential 20% stake in the company if its value surpasses $30 billion by 2029.
The deal is one of the most ambitious plans in U.S. atomic energy in decades, underscoring President Donald Tru
mp’s agenda to maximize energy output to feed booming demand for artificial intelligence data centers.
But the financial incentives risk clouding regulatory scrut
ny aimed at preventing nuclear accidents, according to safety advocates and regulatory experts.
“The things that could go wrong are Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima,” said Greg Jaczko, a for
mer chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, pointing to three of the worst nuclear power accidents on record.
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“All have causes tied to insufficient regulatory independence.”
The White House said concerns about safety were unfounded.
“The regulatory regime remains the same and is not compromise
d. There’s nothing in the deal about regulatory changes,” the White House said in an emailed statement.
Westinghouse owner Cameco declined to comment. Brookfield and Westinghouse did not respond to messages requesting comment.
TD Cowen analysts told clients in a research note this week they expect Westinghouse to have 10 new large-scale reactors—enough gigawatts to power sev
eral million homes—under construction by 2030 as a result of the deal.
Typically, it takes around a decade for a new nuclear power plant to get built, largely due to the rigorous permittin
g requirements and enormous costs and complexities associated with construction.
Patrick White, a nuclear regulatory and technology expert at the Clean Air Task Force, said effective r
egulation did not need to be a slow or extended process and there were benefits to moving more efficiently.
“Ensuring that nuclear regulation is also timely and predictable
is in the best interest of both companies and the public,” White said.
Todd Allen, a nuclear expert at the University of Michigan, said the
design of Westinghouse reactors is well established, but questioned how fast projects could progress.