June 25, 2026
WHEN: Today, Thursday, June 25, 2026
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” (M-F, 9AM-12PM ET) today, Thursday, June 25. Following is a link to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/06/25/energy-secretary-chris-wright-iran-will-be-back-to-exporting-similar-volume-as-biden-era.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
CARL QUINTANILLA: Meantime, the U.S. switching on a nuclear reactor for the first time in about five decades. Our Pippa Stevens is in Idaho today with that story, along with the energy secretary of the U.S. Hey, Pippa.
PIPPA STEVENS: Good morning, Carl. And, Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being here.
CHRIS WRIGHT: Thank you for being here on this exciting day.
STEVENS: So, here at Idaho National Lab, the first new reactor switched on in more than 50 years earlier this month as part of the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program. How does this contribute to the U.S.' goal to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050?
WRIGHT: It's tremendous. These are historic times right now; 75 years ago, the nuclear age, using nuclear energy to produce electricity for civilian applications began right here at Idaho National Labs in 1951. This is the world's greatest gathering of nuclear energy expertise on the planet. And now we have the new nuclear age beginning right now, the golden era of nuclear energy, with soon to be our third next-generation nuclear reactor to turn on, to go critical and maintain a sustaining chain reaction. As a career nuclear guy, I could not be more excited.
STEVENS: The deadline for, to go critical was July 4 of this year. We have gotten two so far. Are we going to meet that?
WRIGHT: We are going to meet that. We are going to meet that. Think about what President Trump said 15 months ago, that the nuclear renaissance has been talked about for 20 years. But the nuclear industry that came out with the bang, a super strong start, hadn't done a lot in three or four decades, was just sitting there. President Trump came in with aggressive goals, an aggressive plan, a thoughtful plan to restart the American nuclear industry. June 4, June 4, we had in Antares' reactor go critical, the first non-light water reactor to go critical in the United States in over 40 years, two weeks later, Valar Atomics, on June 18, and in the next few days, Aalo Atomics, all different, next-gen. These are all Gen IV, meaning new enhanced technology reactors, and they're all different designs. They're all going to go critical before July 4. Simply incredible that President Trump's aggressive goal is going to be achieved.
STEVENS: So you approved Aalo Atomics to turn on?
WRIGHT: Today, which means it proved all the safety of its systems, the integrity of its design, that it is ready to go.
STEVENS: Now, it's one thing to reach criticality. It's a very important milestone. But commercialization is what's really important. What is the path to that? And what's a realistic timeline?
WRIGHT: Fast, fast. And part of that permitting from NRC and commercialization, we have a lot of regulatory personnel from the NRC that have been working hand in hand with the DOE on these permitting to allow these reactors to go critical in a test mode. So, everything's being demonstrated, seen, documented. This is part of the process to get these reactors permitted to go into commercial operations. But I believe we will see the first electricity coming out of a small module reactor, yes, perhaps before the end of next year, and definitely within 2028, within the Trump administration. So, from an idea, and, again, private capital, private innovators are driving this, but a constructive government that's working hand in glove with them to bring commonsense, government support, sharing of facilities, to make the nuclear age get launched as quickly, as safely and as effectively as possible.
STEVENS: Will we see a new commercial-scale reactor, an AP1000, and when?
WRIGHT: Two days ago, we announced also a loan program with the, with the, from our Energy Dominance Financing Office to partner to build 10 AP1000s, 1.1-gigawatt reactor, each 11 gigawatts total. The long lead time parts of those will be ordered in the next few months with different partners for different parts of those reactors, all developed by commercial developers. And those reactors will be under construction in the next 12 to 36 months, and those reactors will be on the early to mid-2030s. But that's 11 gigawatts of new firm generating capacity. That's huge.
STEVENS: Now, turning to Iran, sanctions were recently broadened on Iranian oil. How much will they now be able to export?
WRIGHT: They will be back to exporting similar volumes to what they did during the entire Biden administration. Iran today has export capacity, meaning their production and export capacity, 1.5 to two million barrels a day. They were doing that in spite of sanctions. They were just selling the oil to China, getting paid in yuan, and they needed to buy maybe more Chinese goods than they would, than they would have wanted. So, by removing the sanctions off Iranian oil, they can sell it other places. They can get paid in dollars. So we have given them a little bit more freedom, but not a lot. This isn't a big give on the part of the United States. But this is part of a way to start a dialogue with Iran that may or may not lead to a constructive outcome. We don't need Iran to be a reasonable party and to get a constructive outcome to make this whole operation a big success for the United States.
STEVENS: The president has said those unfrozen funds will be used to purchase U.S. goods, including agricultural goods. Iran has disputed that. How can you, what is the oversight there? Can you shed any clarity?
WRIGHT: So, the difference is that allowing them to sell their oil, they can get paid in dollars. That's money that, that's money that goes straight to Iran. What the president was referring to is, when and if we unfreeze some of their existing funds that are held in accounts around the world, those funds will be tightly controlled how those will be expended. Those are funds from previous oil sales that have been frozen because of sanctions. Those funds are still frozen. They are not released. But, if they are released, how they will be, how they will be spent will be tightly controlled.
STEVENS: Looking at the U.S. SPR, the initial target was 172 million barrels released. Given that U.S. oil is now right around 70, any plans to change that, to change that pace?
WRIGHT: No plan right now. We had a lot of interest in buying those barrels early on when oil prices were higher. And unlike the Biden administration, we did not sell a single barrel. We traded. And, so far, on average, we have traded one barrel for 1.28 barrels to come back; 35-plus million barrels, at no cost to American taxpayers, will be added to the SPR in the next few years as we refill, as we get the returns from the releases we have had. But, yes, through this conflict, I think the United States government and the United States industry have done a tremendous job in keeping oil prices much lower than pretty much everyone predicted, given the interruption of flows. But we have restored the flows now, and the pathway for energy prices from here is downwards.
STEVENS: President Trump said yesterday that the national average at the pump should be $2.25. What is the path to that, and when will we see $2.25?
WRIGHT: President Trump is all about lower energy prices, not just gasoline prices, lower energy price, prices across the board. That's why we're here at Idaho National Lab. We're going to generate massive new electricity from these next-generation small modular reactors, from large reactors. We're growing American oil production at an all-time high today. So there will be a downward trend in energy prices for the rest of the Trump administration. But I don't have a crystal ball to predict when we will hit certain price thresholds, but the trajectory is downward. And by solving the problem of Iran never getting a nuclear weapon, that means, for decades to come, that's downward pressure on oil prices because we're removing the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East, to peace in the world and to the free flow of energy for decades to come.
STEVENS: Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being here. And, Leslie, I will send it back to you.
For more information contact:
Stephanie Hirlemann
CNBC
