WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) -

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign executive orders as

soon as Friday that aim to jumpstart the nuclear energy industry

by easing the regulatory process on approvals for new reactors

and strengthening fuel supply chains, four sources familiar

said.

Facing the first rise in power demand in two decades from

the boom in artificial intelligence, Trump declared an energy

emergency on his first day in office.

Chris Wright, the energy secretary, has said the race to

develop power sources and data centers needed for AI is

"Manhattan Project 2", referring to the massive U.S. program

during World War II to develop atomic bombs.

A draft summary of the orders said Trump will invoke the

Cold War-era Defense Production Act to declare a national

emergency over U.S. dependence on Russia and China for enriched

uranium, nuclear fuel processing and advanced reactor inputs.

The summary also directs agencies to permit and site new

nuclear facilities and directs the Departments of Energy and

Defense to identify federal lands and facilities for nuclear

deployment and to streamline processes to get them built.

It also encourages the Energy Department to use loan

guarantees and direct loans to increase the build out of

reactors. Trump only used the Loan Programs Office in his first

administration to support a large nuclear plant in Georgia.

The LPO has now has hundreds of billions of dollars in

financing thanks to legislation passed during former President

Joe Biden's administration, but has been hit hard by job cuts

during Trump's second administration.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for

comment. The exact text and wording of draft executive orders is

subject to frequent changes and there is no guarantee elements

of the EOs will not be excised or modified during the final

stages of the review process.

The United States was the first developer of nuclear power

and has the most nuclear power capacity in the world, but the

energy source is now growing the fastest in China.

One of the sources said officials from the industry

including the Nuclear Energy Institute and Constellation

, a utility with the biggest U.S. reactor capacity, were

invited to attend a signing ceremony Friday afternoon.

Constellation and NEI did not immediately respond to requests

for comment.

The Trump administration has been debating four draft

executive orders to boost nuclear power that sought ways to give

the administration more power to approve reactors and reform the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the body of five panelists that

approves reactors.

Nuclear is popular with Democrats for being virtually free

in carbon emissions and with Republicans for providing reliable

electricity compared to wind and solar power which can be

intermittent, a problem that can be managed with battery

storage.

Nuclear power produces radioactive waste which for which

there is no permanent repository in the United States.