US energy secretary Chris Wright says the country is on track to meet its objective of having multiple nuclear test reactors under its pilot programme for new advanced reactors reach criticality by the country’s 250th anniversary on 4 July this year.

When asked if the US would reach its target of having three reactors reach criticality by that date in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Wright said: “We are going to hit that, amazingly… Let’s get those reactors running and prove that they’re real by July 4 on our 250th anniversary.

“But our national labs, a bunch of innovative companies that have been able to raise a lot of capital recently, particularly with president Trump’s leadership, we are actually going to achieve that,” said Wright.