Trump’s FY 2026 “skinny” budget proposal cuts $408M for nuclear
President Donald Trump released his discretionary budget request Friday, stirring up questions from nuclear advocates about how the federal funding earmarked for domestic energy would fare.
The proposal includes varied recommendations (some with inflammatory language), including “The budget cancels over $15 billion in Green New Scam funds committed to build unreliable renewable energy” and “The budget reorients [Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy] programs to early-stage research and development programming, eliminating funding for Green New Scam interests and climate change–related activities like the Biden Administration’s Justice40.”
Refocus and reduction: For the Office of Nuclear Energy, the budget recommendation is that the office “focus on what is truly needed to achieve national dominance in nuclear technology. This includes developing innovative concepts for nuclear reactors, researching advanced nuclear fuels, and maintaining the capabilities of the Idaho National Laboratory.”
This refocus comes with a $408 million cut from 2025 funding levels, to eliminate “what the administration deemed ‘nonessential research on nuclear energy,” as reported by the Exchange Monitor. So far there are not many specific details about increases or decreases to specific programs, such as the Generation III+ Small Modular Reactor Program or the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
Overall, topline numbers show the U.S. Department of Energy received $49.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, while only $45.1 billion is requested for the upcoming FY 2026.
Big picture: Trump’s proposal cuts billions in federal funding for the next fiscal year budget, gutting some programs aimed at curbing climate change, Reuters reported.
The budget proposal from Trump prioritizes DOE funding toward research and development of technologies that could produce advanced nuclear reactors among an abundance of oil, gas, coal, and critical minerals, the White House said, according to Reuters.
This initial “skinny” budget proposal is likely to change quite a bit as agencies will now submit their own budget justifications before the White House puts out its full FY 2026 proposal by the end of May, after which the “sausage is made” in Congress before final funding is appropriated.
Environmental Management: DOE-EM is responsible for 14 active cleanup sites. Its topline budget is being reduced by $389 million, which the budget document says reflects just a $178 million reduction given that responsibility for the Savannah River Site is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina is being remediated from nuclear production contaminants. Work began in the 1990s and is scheduled to continue until the 2060s.
Meanwhile, there are plans to create a plutonium pit—a critical component of nuclear weapons—at the site, which is where NNSA control comes in. The NNSA, under federal law, must produce at least 80 war reserve plutonium pits per year.
