World
U.S. Must Beat China in Race for Nuke Power
Ending Beijing’s energy supremacy is crucial to ensure economic growth.
A BY JAMES CARTER AND SEVASTIAN HORTON
merica is losing the nuclear energy race to China — and losing it badly. In the past decade,
China has brought 40 nuclear reactors online, while the United States has managed to start just two. Beijing plans to build 150 new
reactors by 2035 — far surpassing nuclear construction in the U.S. — with 27 Chinese reactors already under construction. According to the Information Tech-
nology and Innovation Foundation, China’s share of global nuclear patents has jumped from 1.3% in 2008 to 13.4% in 2023, and it now leads the world in nuclear fusion patent applications.
1Establish General Reactor Designs Licenses for Standardized
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) already certifies
reactor designs, but each project faces duplicative, site-by- site reviews that slow deployment and drive up costs. Congress can put an end to this ineficiency by authorizing general licenses for standardized reactor fleets: Once a design is certified, identical units would advance with only targeted reviews for seismic, hydrologic, or grid integration factors.
2Eliminate Environmental
Impact Statements Federal environmental reviews remain shackled to half- century-old rules
designed for massive light-water reactors, not the safe, compact
58 NEWSMAX | DECEMBER 2025 Why should this set off alarms
in Washington? At its core, China’s nuclear energy strategy is aimed at setting global standards, controlling supply chains, and securing geopoliti- cal dominance. It’s the same playbook Beijing used
to seize control of the world’s critical minerals — with China now dominat- ing 70% of global rare earth mining and up to 90% of refining capacity. That’s a strategic chokehold that
allows China to manipulate markets and disrupt supply chains at will. Remember, cheap and reliable
energy is essential to economic growth and ultimately global power. America’s nuclear regulatory pipe-
technologies pioneered by American innovators today. Advanced microreactors producing 5 MWe or less should be granted categorical exclusions (CATEX) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) so that regulatory scrutiny matches actual risk rather than bureaucratic inertia.
3Eliminate Mandatory Hearings
Under current law, the NRC must hold a “mandatory hearing” for every reactor
license application — a formal proceeding in which commissioners reexamine staff findings, even when the application is uncontested and no public concerns have been raised. The NRC projects that future combined license hearings will consume over 6,000 staff hours and saddle applicants with nearly $2 million in fees — only to
line moves at a fraction of the speed required to compete with China. The bottlenecks are well known: duplica- tive design reviews, blanket environ- mental requirements for inherently low-risk projects, and transport stan- dards that treat factory-sealed fuel the same as high-risk material. This self-imposed paralysis is best understood through a simple analogy: roughly 40,000 Americans die in car accidents every year, yet no federal bureaucrat tries to mandate that all cars crawl on highways at 5 mph. Four targeted, evidence-based
reforms can preserve essential envi- ronmental protections while accel- erating the country’s nuclear energy development. Pursuing these reforms would trig-
ger nothing less than an American nuclear energy renaissance.
rubber-stamp conclusions already reached through exhaustive safety, environmental, and public reviews.
4Modernize Fuel Standards Transportation
Under current rules, a factory-fueled
microreactor shipped with its core in place is
treated no differently than a package of fresh nuclear fuel. That means developers must design packages to withstand the full suite of hypothetical accident conditions (e.g., drop, puncture, fire, immersion).
We’re forcing next-generation reactors into a framework designed for decades-old technology.
This creates unnecessary red tape, adds costs, and produces delays without making shipments any safer. At its core, the case for
modernizing nuclear regulation means safeguarding America’s economic strength, strategic independence, and standard of living.
When energy is cheap,
abundant, and reliable, everything else in society — from manufacturing and agriculture to housing and transportation — becomes less expensive, more abundant, and more reliable. China is moving at full speed
to dominate the next century of energy, and every year of U.S. delay cedes more ground to Beijing’s factories, supply chains, and geopolitical leverage.
James Carter is a principal with Navigators Global. He previously headed President Donald Trump’s tax team during the 2016-2017 transition.
Sevastian Horton is Navigators Global’s director of legislative affairs.
ICONS: LICENSE BY KARYATIVE / ENVIRONMENT BY BEJOUN / MEETING BY ADRIEN COQUET / OIL TANKER BY KRISNA ARGA MURIA / ALL FROM THE NOUN PROJECT / FLAGS AND NUCLEAR ICON ©ISTOCK
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