In 4 years nuclear weapons went from theory to testing the first bomb. $20 billion spent in that time to construct an entire nuclear industry. The largest building in the world, K-25, was built in 2 years with 25000 workers and employed up to 50000 in the surrounding area. That's the level of commitment I'm talking about.
I believe GP is using a metaphor to describe a certain level of zeal and committed research funding from the government, as compared to a slogan in a newspaper article.
Certainly nuclear power generation has almost nothing to do with nuclear weapons testing.