Radioactive waste sealed in large stainless steel canisters is stored under five feet of concrete in a storage building at the Savannah River Site near Barnwell, S.C. (AP)
"Part of our goal is to bring this to make it more efficient to build things in America again. But one thing with nuclear technology is things that you have to build on-location have become slower to build, and therefore way more expensive to build."
SMRs alleviate that pressure, as materials needed to build the plants can be shipped and assembled on-site on a much smaller scale, but with a potential for per-capita greater power output.
Unlike "stick-building a house" in terms of a large-scale plant, implements for an SMR can be made in a factory and are more mobile.
A data center, military base or state concern could essentially file to have an SMR installed on-site, giving a greater domestic power source and a better overall grid.
"There’s great private capital, capital that's been around the innovations to design these plants. But again, you got this slow-moving, bureaucratic central government that's still got to permit them and allow them to approve. So the nuclear renaissance has been talked about for years. And the Trump administration were actually going to start it," Wright said.
"That is, simplifying the regulatory regime. We just sent out a request for a proposal to fund efforts to speed these along. And actually there was a similar one sent out a while ago for the Biden administration. They hadn't gotten responses back."
States that seek to benefit from SMRs have been vocal in support of that technology.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a bill in 2022 seeking to promote the construction of SMRs, saying that "micronuclear technology has a potential role to play in providing low-cost, reliable power for communities, remote villages and resource development projects."
"This bill will update state law to allow us to pursue the possibilities."
Asked about opposition to nuclear energy, including the closure of Indian Point, Wright said that like almost any other topic, it is vulnerable to politicization.
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Plant Vogtle is a two-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia. (Pallava Bagla/Corbis via Getty Images)
"It just makes no sense at all," he said. "It has by far been the safest way to produce energy in the entire history of the American nuclear industry."
"I know exactly how many people have died from nuclear energy: Zero."
Wright said nuclear power has an "incredibly small footprint," and echoed President Donald Trump’s criticisms of relying too heavily on wind and solar.
"You get the energy whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. But like any industry, it needs to be alive and vigorous so that supply chain is going; and not building nuclear plants in our country for decades means we've lost that industrial capacity. So, we’ve got to stand it back up again."
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/energy-chief-envisions-us-nuclear-renaissance-restoring-pit-production-localizing-nuke-power