President Donald Trump signed a series Executive Orders aimed at revamping America’s nuclear energy sector and establishing new standards for scientific research Friday.

“It's a hot industry. It's a brilliant industry. You have to do it right. It's become very safe and environmental,” Trump said during the signing of the actions in the Oval Office.

Here’s a breakdown of what he signed:

The first four Executive Orders are focused on nuclear energy, specifically on revamping America’s lagging nuclear sector and clearing regulatory hurdles for building more reactors.

Officials say Trump’s first order will reform Nuclear Research and Development at the Department of Energy by speeding up reactor testing times, applications for new reactors and reviews for those reactors to be built.

Trump dismissed concerns over potential nuclear proliferation. “We're going to get it very fast, and we're going to get it very safe, and we're going to get the people in and out, and they can do plants.” The President added “I would say we'll be second to none, because we're starting very strong, but we it's time. It's time for nuclear.”

Trump’s second order will clear the regulatory path at both the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to build nuclear reactors on federally owned land.

“This allows for safe and reliable nuclear energy to power and operate critical defense facilities and AI data centers," said Michael Kratsios, the Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The third order will rehaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent federal agency charged with regulating the production of nuclear energy, as well as the building and maintaining of nuclear energy facilities. Specifically, Trump’s Executive Order will require the agency to make decisions on nuclear reactor licenses within 18 months, speeding up the timeline for nuclear reactors to be built. The White House hopes to have three new experimental reactors by July 4th of next year.

The fourth Executive Order is focused on reinvigorating the U.S. nuclear industrial base, specifically expanding U.S. uranium mining and enriching capabilities.

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The President also signed an Executive Order redefining standards for scientific research, criticizing past scientific basis.

“In recent decades, we've seen a decline in disruptive research, disruptive scientific patents and papers, diminishing returns on investments in biomedical research and serious cases of irreproducibility, fraud and misconduct in the scientific enterprise."

“This EO sets out common sense, back to basics, principles any scientist will recognize, per the EO gold standard, science is defined as reproducible, transparent, transparent and falsifiable. It is subject to unbiased peer review, clear about errors and uncertainties, skeptical of assumptions, interdisciplinary and collaborative, accepting of negative results as positive outcomes and free from conflicts of interest. President Trump is directing federal research agencies to incorporate gold standard science into their existing programs and activities,” said Kratsios.

Trump’s actions on nuclear energy come as the demand to power things like data centers and generative Artificial Intelligence have grown exponentially.

According to a new report by the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental agency that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector, data centers in the U.S. will account for nearly half of electricity demand growth between now and 2030.

A separate analysis by the sustainable energy publication “Joule” found that by the end of 2025, energy consumption by AI systems worldwide could approach up to 49% of total data center power consumption.

The U.S. currently has 93 operating commercial nuclear reactors at 54 nuclear power plants in 28 states. The average age of these nuclear reactors is about 42 years old, according to the Energy Information Administration. The newest reactor to enter service is Vogtle Unit 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, that began commercial operation on April 29, 2024.