YES: Don’t Make Nuclear Power Another Failed Government Program.

Washington’s handouts aren’t what have unleashed today’s nuclear revival. The real engine is private investment. But old Washington spending habits die hard. What should be a golden opportunity is, in at least in one instance, turning into a taxpayer-financed boondoggle. Instead of trusting the private markets’ proven success, the federal government is reflexively reaching for subsidies, throwing billions of taxpayer dollars into demonstration projects that in the real world produce more delay than progress. What follows is a cautionary tale of how well-intentioned federal programs risk undermining the very market momentum now driving nuclear energy forward.

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Project (ARDP) was launched with optimism near the end of President Trump’s first term, with the promise to deliver two commercial-scale reactors within five to seven years. The initial tranche of $160 million has since ballooned into a multibillion-dollar federal spending spree, with $2.4 billion embedded in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in 2021.

The clock is ticking, and the demonstration reactors are drifting off schedule. Meanwhile, this project is hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars faster than Congress can write checks. Rather than serving as a showcase of innovation, ARDP is veering toward becoming just another Beltway boondoggle with big promises and bloated budgets, leaving the taxpayers very little to show for it.

For conservative budget hawks, this arrangement should raise eyebrows, as should the names of its chief beneficiaries: Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. They are key backers of the two companies—X-Energy and TerraPower—receiving this government largesse.

Or as the wise man once said, “Get the hell out of my way!”