Take yourself back to 2017. Get Out and The Shape of Water were playing in theaters, Zohran Mamdani was still known as rapper Young Cardamom, and the Trump administration, freshly in power, was eager to prop up its favored energy sources.
That year, the administration introduced a series of subsidies for struggling coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants, which were facing increasing price pressures from gas and cheap renewables. The plan would have put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars. It didn’t work.
In subsequent years, the nuclear industry kept running into roadblocks. Three nuclear plants have shut down since 2020, while construction of two of the only four reactors started since 2000 was put on hold after a decade and billions of dollars following a political scandal. Coal, meanwhile, continued its long decline: It comprises just 17 percent of the US power mix, down from a high of 45 percent in 2010.
Now, both of these energy sources are getting second chances. The difference this time is the buzz around AI, but it isn’t clear that the outcome will be much different.
Throughout 2025, the Trump administration has not just gone all in on promoting nuclear, but positioned it specifically as a solution to AI’s energy needs. In May, the president signed a series of executive orders intended to boost nuclear energy in the US, including ordering 10 new large reactors to be constructed by 2030. A pilot program at the Department of Energy created as a result of May’s executive orders—coupled with a serious reshuffling of the country’s nuclear regulator—has already led to breakthroughs from smaller startups. Energy secretary Chris Wright said in September that AI’s progress “will be accelerated by rapidly unlocking and deploying commercial nuclear power.”
The administration’s push is mirrored by investments from tech companies. Giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have inked numerous deals in recent years with nuclear companies to power data centers; Microsoft even joined the World Nuclear Association. Multiple retired reactors in the US are being considered for restarts—including two of the three that have closed in the past five years—with the tech industry supporting some of these arrangements. (This includes Microsoft’s high-profile restart of the infamous Three Mile Island, which is also being backed by a $1 billion loan from the federal government.) It’s a good time for both the private and public sectors to push nuclear: public support for nuclear power is the highest it’s been since 2010.
Despite all of this, the practicalities of nuclear energy leave its future in doubt. Most of nuclear’s costs come not from onerous regulations but from construction. Critics are wary of juiced-up valuations for small modular reactor companies, especially those with deep connections to the Trump administration. An $80 billion deal the government struck with reactor giant Westinghouse in October is light on details, leaving more questions than answers for the industry. And despite high-profile tech deals that promise to get reactors up and running in a few years, the timelines remain tricky.
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