WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy announced a sweeping pair of investments this week aimed at accelerating a revival of America’s nuclear fuel supply chain while rapidly expanding the federal government’s artificial intelligence capabilities, moves the Trump administration says are central to economic security, scientific leadership, and energy dominance.
On Monday, the department awarded $11 million to five U.S. companies to develop and license new or modified transportation packages for high-assay low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU, a specialized nuclear fuel critical to the next generation of advanced reactors. The announcement came during Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s visit to Idaho National Laboratory, the final stop in his tour of all 17 DOE national laboratories.
The funding is designed to address a major bottleneck in the domestic nuclear industry: the safe, economical transport of HALEU. The department said the awards will support industry-led efforts to design, modify, and certify transportation packages through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, laying the groundwork for long-term, scalable transport solutions that can support reactor developers across the country.
The initiative aligns with President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders focused on rebuilding the nation’s nuclear fuel cycle and reducing reliance on foreign supply chains. Wright said the administration is moving aggressively to restore domestic capabilities across the energy sector.
“From critical minerals to nuclear fuel, the Trump administration is fully committed to restoring the supply chains needed to secure America’s future,” Wright said. He added that the department is moving at “record speeds” to advance what the administration has framed as a new American nuclear renaissance.
Companies selected under the program include NAC International, Westinghouse Electric Company, Container Technologies Industries, American Centrifuge Operating, and Paragon D&E. Most projects will focus on developing entirely new transportation package designs eligible for NRC licensing, with performance periods of up to three years. One project will modify an existing design for certification, with a performance period of up to two years. The funding is provided through DOE’s HALEU Availability Program, established under the Energy Act to support civilian research, development, and commercial use of the fuel.
Two days later, the department unveiled a far larger investment on a different front, announcing more than $320 million to rapidly expand artificial intelligence capabilities tied to the Genesis Mission, a flagship effort to integrate AI across federal science, engineering, and national security research.
The AI funding, backed by President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cut and congressional appropriations, is intended to help build what the department calls an integrated American Science and Security Platform, a discovery engine designed to dramatically increase the productivity of U.S. scientific investment over the next decade.
DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said the funding will position the United States to maintain technological leadership as AI reshapes research and development worldwide.
“By investing in the American Science Cloud and the Transformational AI Model Consortium, we are creating the foundational technologies and AI-ready data sets that will enable the success of the Genesis Mission,” Gil said.
The investments span four major initiatives. The American Science Cloud will serve as the platform’s backbone, hosting and distributing AI models and scientific data across national laboratories, industry, and research partners. The Transformational AI Models Consortium will focus on building self-improving AI systems capable of advancing multiple scientific and engineering disciplines by leveraging DOE data and facilities.
Additional funding will support 14 projects in robotics and automation, including autonomous laboratories and intelligent control systems for large-scale experiments. Another 37 foundational AI awards will focus on curating vast scientific datasets and developing rigorously validated AI models capable of analyzing experimental, observational, and simulation data at unprecedented scale.
Together, the nuclear and AI investments reflect a broader strategy by the administration to pair energy infrastructure with advanced computing in pursuit of economic growth, national security, and long-term scientific leadership, as the Department of Energy accelerates efforts to reshape the technological foundations of the U.S. economy.
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