As America’s data centers and manufacturing surge headlong into an energy-hungry future, Texas bets big on nuclear, China keeps cranking out reactors like it’s 1957, and the Trump administration gets another crucial seat to fill at FERC. Plus, a few sobering reminders: tariffs still threaten growth, the nuclear race with China and Russia isn’t slowing, and somewhere out there a thorium reactor is quietly rewriting the rules. Welcome to GridBrief—where energy history isn't history, it's the present tense.

Texas Moves to Corner the Future of Nuclear

Texas House Bill 14 passed this week, and it’s a seismic shift: a new state nuclear office, up to $200 million in grants for reactor projects, and a clear shot at making Texas the epicenter of American atomic revival.

It’s no mystery why. ERCOT added 43 GW to its five-year load forecast—roughly a third of the nation’s total growth. Data centers (18 GW), hydrogen plants (5.8 GW), crypto mines, and good old-fashioned oil and gas are all feeding the monster. Texas isn't just riding the wave—it’s building an aircraft carrier to surf it. Projects already underway paint the picture:

• Natura Resources' molten salt reactor at Abilene Christian.

• Last Energy targeting microreactors for data centers.

• Dow and X-energy pushing four reactors at a Seadrift petrochemical plant.

The new law funds long-lead equipment, site prep, and licensing—exactly the bottlenecks that have kneecapped nuclear in the past. With Abbott’s office setting strategy and a permitting coordinator (read: "bouncer for bureaucratic delays"), Texas is betting on scale, speed, and supply chain sovereignty.

The rest of the country should pay attention. If Texas cracks the code on private-sector SMR deployment, it won’t stay a Lone Star story for long.

China Approves Another Ten Nuclear Reactors—Because of Course It Did

China just approved construction of ten more reactors for 2025, keeping pace with the breakneck tempo it’s set since 2021. That brings it to 30 reactors under construction, almost half the global total.

• Investment: $27 billion for the latest round.

• Nuclear capacity: targeted to hit 65 GW by end of 2025, aiming for 200 GW by 2040.

China isn’t building for climate virtue signaling. It’s building because cheap, firm power is geopolitical gold—and whoever controls cheap electrons will control AI, manufacturing, and economic supremacy in the next century. And they aren't building yesterday's tech either: China’s fourth-generation, high-temperature, gas-cooled reactors are already online, pushing the envelope far beyond old light-water designs.

Meanwhile, Washington dithers over permitting timelines and endless regulatory fine print. If China’s nuclear surge feels aggressive, it’s because it is—and because they know what too few in the U.S. seem willing to admit: electricity isn’t just a commodity anymore. It’s a weapon.

Willie Phillips Exits FERC, Trump Gets Another Seat to Fill

Willie Phillips has resigned from FERC, giving President Trump a critical opportunity to shape the agency that quietly controls America’s energy arteries. Phillips leaves behind a resume heavy on grid reliability and transmission expansion—but also laden with Biden-era detours into "environmental justice" and public participation efforts that often clogged the agency’s real mission: getting projects built.

The replacement pool?

• Expect a conservative lawyer with serious FERC chops.

• Expect someone who values cost, speed, and reliability over ideological theatrics.

• And expect that whoever gets the nod will be walking into a very different FERC, one that now deeply matters to Trump's broader strategy of rebuilding American grid resilience.

One reminder: Mark Christie’s term also ends in June. FERC’s balance could tilt dramatically if Trump moves fast—and all signals are that he will.

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Conversation Starters

• Foreign Affairs: "The Other Nuclear Race"
  A devastating and must-read reminder: China and Russia are running circles around the U.S. in the nuclear export market, leveraging state power and financing to dominate the developing world. The U.S. either retools its strategy—or gets relegated to spectator status.

• Reason: "Trump's DOE Saved Your Appliances"
  It’s a light news day, so you can read my own column on how decades of "efficiency" mandates quietly gutted the performance of American appliances—and how the latest rollbacks finally offer a small reprieve.

• The Hill: "Unleashing American Energy"
  A powerful call for an energy policy that actually reflects today’s needs: embracing nuclear, gas, renewables, and cutting the bureaucratic chains that bind infrastructure development.

Good Bet, Bad Bet

Good Bet: X-Energy
The Dow/X-Energy project in Texas is the tip of a very large spear. X-energy’s pebble-bed reactor designs offer flexibility, factory modularity, and fuel efficiency that fits exactly what data centers, industrial hubs, and grid operators are starting to demand. The timeline isn’t short—but the payout could be enormous.

Bad Bet: Cameco (CCJ)
In theory, Cameco should be soaring with all the nuclear headlines. In practice, uranium markets are looking increasingly shaky in the short run. Chinese stockpiles are vast, spot prices are softening, and supply chain bottlenecks are threatening new projects. Long-term bullish—but near-term turbulence looks increasingly ugly.

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