Trump’s “nuclear socialism” more apparent as a grift

The libertarian non-profit Cato Institute just posted a stinging critique of the Trump’s White House latest scheme to jump start wildly   expensive and unreliable “advanced” nuclear reactor construction but misdescribed a more apparent grift as “nuclear socialism.” Trump has offered Westinghouse Electric Company, now owned by two Canadian corporations that bought the corporation from the Toshiba-owned Westinghouse company. In March 2017, Westinghouse experienced a financial collapse of its new AP1000 Advanced Reactor design’s because of the failure to control the cost-to-completion and time-to-completion for two construction project sites totaling four units in Georgia and South Carolina. The Westinghouse units are the first US reactors to start construction in more than 3o years. Only two units were completed and now operating. Toshiba only narrowly avoided bankruptcy.

The Trump Administration offered the Canadian corporations up to $17.5 billion in low-interest federal loans in June 2026 to build ten AP1000 advanced reactors in the US. The $17.5 billion loan package builds upon a broader $80 billion partnership the administration has reached with Westinghouse as the White House’s choice to expand the U.S. nuclear infrastructure. In the process,  The Trump Administration is seeking a US government 20% equity stake in Westinghouse international nuclear profits and  gambling with US taxpayer dollars.

United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright introduced the Trump Administration initiative as the beginning of what could be the “next American nuclear renaissance.” One could ask for a point of reference with “When, what and where was this first nuclear renaissance”?  In fact, the first “renaissance” initiative was launched by the George W. Bush Administration in August 2005 following Congress’ passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

At the time,  no new construction permits had been submitted by industry to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) since 1978 (27 years) and no new applications submitted after 1973 had completed construct to operating a nuclear power station (with the exception of New York’s Shoreham nuclear power plant on Long Island, which was completed but never operated because of the cost of its power and an unacceptable radiological risk to New York City).

The situation was looking dire for atomic power. Recurring construction delays, universal skyrocketing cost-to-completion had accelerated federally licensed project cancellations. The last reactor project operating from that era was Tennessee’s Watts Bar nuclear power station which received its 40 year operating license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission after 43 years.

So the idea of a “renaissance” was coined, generously incentivized by congress and signed into law by President Bush in August 2005. According to the Congressional Research Service, the nuclear industry responded with a pledge to submit thirty-five plus units to make application for licensing permits to the NRC  by 2007. The NRC issued construction permits to 12 units, as the other units were cancelled or withdrawn from a streamlined licensing process by utilities. With the industry now largely watching on the sidelines,  only four  units would break ground. Eventually, Georgia’s Vogtle Units 3 &4 would complete construction and be issued operating licenses (2023 and 2024) seven years behind schedule and more than $20 billion over budget.

Two more Westinghouse units,  South Carolina’s V.C. Summer 3&4 were cancelled mid-construction with more than $9 billion in sunk costs—eventually past on to captured ratepayers. Both Westinghouse construction projects were paid in advance by charging the  electricity ratepayers for Construction-Work-In-Progress enacted by state legislatures. On the one hand, ratepayers are still paying for a nuclear power plant that remains unfinished and, if ever, in reasonable doubt. On the other hand, the Vogtle construction project was originally estimated for completion at $14 billion for two units was completed at an estimated $36.5 billion. Three South Carolina utility executives (SCANA) for the cancelled  construction of the V.C. Summer project and one Westinghouse AP1000 Project Vice President were  arrested by FBI and prosecuted the US Attorney for South Carolina. All four pleaded guilty to fraud or were convicted, three eventually serving federal prison sentences.

The definition of “grift” is recognized as “a fraudulent scheme or confidence game used to obtain money or property through deceit rather than physical force. Someone who engages in these scams or con jobs is known as a “grifter.”

That said, while energy economist and author Professor Stephen Thomas, University of Greenwich Business School, wrote in the origin and referenced article for Cato magazine’s Regulation “The Next Nuclear Renaissance?” (Fall 2025) is spot on, Beyond Nuclear refrains from using the Cato Institute’s description as “nuclear socialism.” The much ballyhooed “next nuclear renaissance” is more appropriately recognized as the staging for broader opportunities to “defraud” both US taxpayers and electric ratepayers with “nuclear power double jeopardy.”