U.S. Nuclear Energy Project Tracker Update – September 2026
In February of 2026, NIA released the U.S. Nuclear Energy Project Tracker to help stakeholders understand the status of early mover projects in the United States with respect to five key indicators: (1) site selection and site work, (2) licensing, (3) project teaming, (4) offtake, and (5) funding. The September 2026 update to that tracker is available today. Here are a few highlights:
The Cloud Has to Be Built Somewhere: The AI and nuclear buildout depends on community trust
For years, the “cloud” sounded weightless, as if data floated above us and the digital economy existed everywhere and nowhere at once.
But the cloud was never in the sky. It has always been on land, plugged into the grid, cooled by water and air, and built in communities.
That reality has become impossible to ignore. The International Energy Agency projects that global electricity use by data centers will roughly double by 2030. In the United States, the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that data centers could account for 9 to 17 percent of electricity demand by 2030, up from roughly 4 to 5 percent in 2024.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All: The Portfolio of Policies Needed for Large and Small Reactors
In January, NIA published the report, Right-Sizing Reactors, to explore the economic trade-offs between large-scale reactors, small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors. We concluded that both large and small reactors have pathways to lower costs — but they need different enabling conditions to get there, and it's worth being more specific about the polic
U.S. Nuclear Energy Project Tracker Update – June 2026
In February of 2026, NIA released the U.S. Nuclear Energy Project Tracker to help stakeholders understand the status of early mover projects in the United States with respect to five key indicators: (1) site selection and site work, (2) licensing, (3) project teaming, (4) offtake, and (5) funding. The June 2026 update to that tracker is available today. Here are a few highlights:
Think Portfolio, Not Project: A Portfolio Approach to Nuclear Energy Innovation
Dozens of nuclear projects are in various stages of development across the United States. This new wave of reactors is being driven by growing demand for clean, reliable energy to meet the needs of data centers and AI, industry, national security, and decarbonization. Companies are making real progress toward demonstrating first-of-a-kind projects. Despite this progress, not every project will succeed, but that’s okay. What matters is the success of the overall nuclear energy portfolio, not every project in that portfolio.