Energizing America

S. Rob Sobhani | May 31, 2025

(The Washington Times) — President Trump’s vision to unleash American energy and ensure U.S. global dominance can be realized by embracing the resilience of nuclear energy. Indeed, Mr. Trump can usher in America’s new economic, military and energy renaissance and forge a new era of American prosperity by embracing a new American nuclear future. He can make a strong case to his fellow citizens that there is no American dream without American atomic energy.

The ideal venue for President Trump to share his vision for “Energizing America” through nuclear energy should be from the deck of a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine. He can demonstrate the importance of and support for America’s nuclear renaissance by pointing out that America’s dominance of the global sea lanes has been made possible by nuclear energy, which ironically is also America’s largest source of clean energy. President Trump can argue that if the U.S. fails to lead in delivering nuclear technology, U.S. industries will struggle to compete, the U.S. economy will falter, and as a result, U.S. security at home and abroad will be severely weakened.

The good news is that there is bipartisan support in Congress to significantly expand America’s domestic capacity to generate reliable electricity, always on, and available without risk of outage. According to Senator Risch of Idaho, nuclear energy is the definitive solution to meet President Trump’s vision of making America great again. For example, as AI transforms our world, revolutionizes industries from health care to national security, and reshapes how we live and communicate, our dependence on electricity becomes critical.

Indeed, the race for AI dominance has launched a long-term stampede to connect to America’s vast electricity grid. Tech companies and data center providers need massive amounts of power as soon as possible. Trends suggest that by 2030, data centers for training AI models will require more than 5 gigawatts of electricity, which is about what Manhattan consumes on average. And beyond domestic AI needs, the US is locked into an existential struggle with China for AI supremacy. In short, America’s AI leadership will fall short if more nuclear energy isn’t developed.

President Trump can help accelerate his vision to “Energize America” by calling on the one company with the qualifications to immediately step up to the plate. Entra1 Energy is the exclusive commercialization partner of NuScale Power, the only technology provider and producer of small modular reactors (SMR) that has obtained U.S. nuclear regulatory approval and is ready for commercial deployment.

The advantages of the Entra1 Energy-NuScale alliance are fourfold. First, Entra1-NuScale has been certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a process that can take at least 7 years.

In short, Nuscale is both deployable and can put power in the grid today. Second, NuScale can be deployed “behind the meter” and therefore, not pass on to consumers the higher costs of electricity needed to support America’s AI boom. This is important because at the current rate of total consumption, Americans can see a 70% increase in their electricity bills by 2030. Third, Entra1-NuScale can deploy its SMRs globally. As President Trump gets ready to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.A.E., he can also offer these countries, whose collective sovereign wealth exceeds $3 trillion, to consider companies such as Entra1-NuScale as their nuclear technology partner. And fourth, the Entra1-NuScale technology can help save lives. How? When a doctor is at an emergency room scanning the CT scans of millions of soldiers in hostile territory through 3D image recognition for wound assessment, he needs to ensure reliable and seamless access. Entra1-NuScale can provide this resilience and help save the lives of our brave men and women in uniform.

President Trump should take the following two steps to usher in a new era of American nuclear energy renewal. First, he should ask AI service providers such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and Oracle to work with Nuscale to protect the American consumer but allow uninterrupted power to these leaders of America’s AI revolution. Second, Mr. Trump should instruct the Pentagon to sign with NuScale to provide reliable clean energy to bases inside and outside the US to stay ahead of China in the new race for AI dominance.

Specifically, the President can sign an Executive Order to direct the U.S. Air Force to start now (2025) to purchase power for 5 gigawatts from new SMR projects in the US to protect and grow the nation’s defense data centers and military drones/AI centers. For his Executive Order to be immediately actionable, he can state that the USAF utilize a Gen 3plus SMR technology that is: a) USNRC approved; b) uses readily available conventional fuel that is low-enriched; and c) SMRs deployable now with existing manufacturing facilities and supply chain capabilities. In practical terms, there is a direct connection between an Entra1-NuScale SMR and an MQ9 drone that is flying on enemy territory, taking millions of images for analysis by the US Air Force that cannot be interrupted because of lack of power or sabotage by Iranian, Russian or Chinese hackers.

By helping “Energize America” through nuclear energy, President Trump will ensure America’s long-term economic prosperity.

S. Rob Sobhani, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University