A Nuclear Resurgence, But Major Obstacles Remain
By Steve Goreham -- November 20, 2025The first commercial nuclear plant started operation at Calder Hall in England in 1956. By 1970, reactors were in construction around the world. Many predicted that atomic energy would generate most of the world’s power by 2000. In 1973, President Richard Nixon stated, “It is estimated that nuclear power will provide more than one-quarter of the country’s electrical production by 1985, and over half by the year 2000.”
However, operational problems and environmental opposition would sway public opinion against atomic energy. Reactor failures at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986, and at Fukushima, Japan in 2011 raised safety concerns. Rising costs from efforts to ensure reactor safety and disposal of nuclear waste limited new plant construction. The nuclear share of world electricity peaked in 1996 at 18%, dropping to about 9% in 2024.
Artificial intelligence (AI) now drives a rising demand for electric power. The high-tech firms, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and the newcomer OpenAI, are building data centers across the world. Since the start of 2024, the number of US data centers has increased more than 50%.
To help meet the new AI power demand, the Trump administration now pushes for a nuclear resurgence. On May 23, President Trump signed four executive orders aimed at deployment of new reactors, strengthening the nuclear supply chain, and reestablishing US industry leadership. In 2024, nuclear plants generated about 18% of US electricity. The presidential orders called for quadrupling US nuclear capacity to 400 GW by 2050.
The power needed by artificial intelligence is huge. When data center servers that previously supported the internet and grid storage are upgraded to run AI, they require six to ten times more electricity. Meta’s Hyperion data center in northeast Louisiana, when completed, will consume twice as much power as New Orleans.
Artificial intelligence needs 24-hour, 7-day, always-on power, which intermittent wind and solar can’t provide. Companies that have committed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions view nuclear as a zero-emissions source to power AI.
Today, natural gas is the preferred onsite electricity source for new data centers in the US. Over 200 gas-fired power plants are in planning or under construction nationwide, including more than 100 new gas plants in Texas alone.
Tesla is a solar and battery company, but last year the firm installed 35 gas turbines to power its Colossus xAI data center near Memphis, Tennessee. Gas plants can be constructed in as little as two years at a small fraction of the nuclear cost.
Nevertheless, to help meet rising power demand, US nuclear plants are being restarted or completed. Holtec International is restarting the plant in Palisades, Michigan, which was shut down in 2022. Constellation Energy and Microsoft agreed to restart the Three Mile Island #1 reactor in Pennsylvania, (not the unit that suffered the 1979 accident). Google and NextEra Energy plan to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa, which was shut down in 2020 after wind-storm damage. Last month, Santee Cooper signed a letter of intent with Brookfield Asset Management to complete construction of two reactors in South Carolina after construction was halted in 2017.
In October, the Trump administration signed an agreement with Cameco Corporation, Brookfield Asset Management, and Westinghouse to invest $80 billion in new or restarted large-scale nuclear plants. This government-industry partnership aims to boost the nuclear industry in the US and abroad.
But large nuclear reactors continue to face cost, cycle time, and regulatory obstacles, compared to other sources. The most recently constructed US nuclear plants, Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Georgia, took more than a decade to build and entered service in 2023, more than seven years late. The plants cost over $30 billion, more than $18 billion over budget.
Nuclear plants face stringent regulatory requirements. I recently spoke at a conference of plastic pipe manufacturers. An attendee told me that when he ships pipe to a typical factory, two pages of documentation are required, but that this rises to more than an inch of paperwork for pipe for a nuclear plant.
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) aim to provide the cost and cycle-time reductions needed for nuclear resurgence. Traditionally, reactors were custom designed and built on-site with capacities of about 1,000 megawatts (MW). SMRs are being designed with capacities of 10ꟷ300 MW, small in size, and able to be factory-assembled and transported as a unit to a location for installation.
In addition to targeting cost and build-time breakthroughs, SMRs are being designed for wide application and improved safety. Rather than rely on the grid, tech firms plan to build SMRs on-site to power data centers. Small reactors may soon be used to power commercial ships, military bases, and rural communities. These small plants are designed to shut down automatically in the case of failure and to minimize nuclear waste.
In August, the Department of Energy selected ten companies for fast-track SMR development, with an aggressive goal of having three test reactors up and running by July, 2026. Twenty-four US companies are pursuing the SMR market.
The nuclear resurgence also appears to be underway globally. About 80 companies from 19 countries are working on SMR designs. One SMR is operating in Russia, and one is under construction in China. Russia and South Korea have begun building commercial ships with small reactors.
Trump administration efforts to expand nuclear capacity face another obstacle. The US nuclear fleet of 94 operating reactors was mostly built in the 1970s and 1980s and is rapidly aging. Thirty-one of the reactors are more than 50 years old and another 36 are more than 40 years old. These reactors will need to be refurbished along with new reactor start-ups to expand the US nuclear capacity.
In summary, the push for a nuclear renaissance must overcome two things. One is the need for major cost breakthroughs, so that developers can back their projects with ‘turnkey’ performance to meet quoted costs and completion dates. Second is the need for a reduction in federal regulations. If these can be accomplished, a real free market in commercial nuclear power may be possible where government subsidies are not needed.
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Steve Goreham, a speaker on energy, the environment, and public policy, is author of as well as author of the bestseller Green Breakdown: The Coming Renewable Energy Failure. His previous posts can be found here.