US increases budget for nuclear energy security and research

US President Donald Trump has boosted the budget for nuclear energy and security for fiscal year 2021 in his request to Congress on Monday. Out of a total of $35.4bn for the whole Department of Energy, President Trump allocated $19.8bn for national nuclear security and $1.2bn for nuclear energy research and development programmes, compared with last year’s decision to allocate $16.5bn and $824m respectively. In the document, Trump said: “Nuclear energy is also critical to the nation’s energy mix and the budget supports an array of programmes to advance nuclear energy technologies. This portfolio promotes revitalisation of the domestic industry and the ability of domestic technologies to compete abroad.”