Start three is to provide fireworks for the Department of Energy’s Fourth of July celebration for achieving a major nuclear milestone. They have turned on the new reactors as part of a pilot program aimed at establishing what Energy Secretary Chris Wright calls “America’s nuclear renaissance” to develop and deploy the next generation of atomic energy.
Other companies in the pilot program have shown signs that they can achieve significance—the term used to describe a nuclear reactor that develops a chain reaction, a key step in generating power—shortly after July 4, following a deadline set by President Donald Trump in an executive order last year. But experts say that while the trial is good PR for the industry, there is still a long way to go before the new reactor designs become a commercial reality.
“These models mean everything and nothing,” says Adam Stein, director of the Nuclear Energy Innovation program at the Breakthrough Institute. “They do a lot for companies that reach critical mass, but even for those companies, they’re not commercial products. They’re pilot plants.”
For decades, America’s nuclear landscape has been dominated by large light-water reactors, which use water to transfer heat and maintain the nuclear reaction. The dream of building smaller reactors with different and more innovative designs has long remained elusive, thanks in part to a slow regulatory environment and the high upfront cost required for small companies to develop new reactor designs.
“The industry has long been considered stagnant—a nuclear reactor was always 10 years away,” says Stein. The pilot program “shows that’s not true, if you move fast on purpose. It changes the narrative, and it changes the perception. That means a lot to the investment community.”
A growing number of investors and tech figures in Silicon Valley see small nuclear reactors, which can provide carbon-free power 24/7 for data centers and other operations, as part of a new golden age. The world of technology has he bowed very low on the Trump administration to reduce regulations and accelerate the development of small nuclear structures. The administration has responded with a series of measures, including creating a pilot program through an executive order last year. In typical Trumpian fashion, the executive order, issued in May 2025, set a tight schedule to acquire at least three key reactors, concurrently with the country. 250th anniversary on the 4th of July.
In February, the Department of Energy cut off quietly several environmental and safety regulations for reactors operating under the department’s supervision, including those being built as part of the pilot program. (A similar deregulation is now being handled at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which approves reactors that will be sold commercially.) Stein says that shortening the process of requirements such as environmental impact statements, which can take years, created a “huge time savings” for companies in the program.
The mill designs in the pilot program have benefited not only by cutting red tape. Several companies also have support from government-funded national laboratories. The atomics of the Valar reached significance at the end of last year at Los Alamos National Laboratory using a base containing the starting oil and key structural elements provided by the laboratory. (The company reached critical condition again with a second reactor at a state-funded lab site in Utah earlier this month.) Antares Nuclear and Deployable Energy—other plants in the pilot program that have met the July 4 order deadline—also reached critical conditions at national labs.
Matt Loszak, co-founder and chief executive officer of Aalo Atomics, credits the government with prioritizing the development of the new reactor at the pace his company has been able to move forward. His company is part of a pilot program and has yet to make the big move, although it hopes to do so soon.
