Is a Nuclear Renaissance Coming?

This story was originally published by High Country News.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his famous “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations. First, he spoke of the world’s rapidly growing stockpile of atomic warheads and the dangers they presented. Then he pivoted, explaining that the very same atomic reaction that could destroy the world could also save it. Nuclear energy, he said, could be used to “serve the needs rather than the fears of the world — to make the deserts flourish, to warm the cold, to feed the hungry, to alleviate the misery of the world.”

Eisenhower’s vision was partially realized by a fleet of new reactors that ultimately produced about 20% of U.S. electricity. But it was scarred by uranium mining’s toll on landscapes and on human health across the Colorado Plateau, even as disasters and near misses, from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl to Church Rock, soured the public on the technology. Cheaper renewables and natural gas began edging out nuclear generation; the San Onofre nuclear plant near San Diego shut down in 2012, and Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo was slated for retirement this year. 

Today, however, Eisenhower’s dream is being dusted off for a new age. Only this time it’s tech giants like Amazon and Switch that are jazzed about nuclear energy — not to alleviate misery or feed the hungry, but to power their growing army of energy-guzzling data centers. 

These gigantic banks of computer processors are the heart — and brains — of the digital age, churning through data that enables movie streaming, credit card transactions and the internet itself. But they require enormous amounts of electricity, with AI and cryptocurrency mining centers being especially energy-hungry, and utilities are scrambling to meet the swiftly growing demand.  New solar and wind installations are being built, but California officials have also postponed Diablo Canyon’s closure for at least five more years, while technology firms are rushing to develop an armada of advanced nuclear reactors.

The new reactors are smaller and more limber than the behemoths of old — some can even be transported by truck — and therefore require less upfront capital. Unlike coal and natural gas generators, they don’t emit greenhouse gases or other air pollution. But they still produce radioactive waste — something that still lacks a long-term storage solution — and are vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks, and they still require damaging uranium mining, milling and enrichment.

Much as Eisenhower’s atomic dream played out in the West — bringing benefits and leaving lasting scars — so, too, will this new nuclear age, assuming it actually dawns.   

Atomic happenings 

Arizona 
• Arizona utilities have teamed up to develop new small modular or full-scale reactors to boost the Palo Verde nuclear plant near Phoenix. 
• The Havasupai Tribe is resisting the Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon — the nation’s only producing conventional uranium mine — citing fears it could contaminate groundwater and springs.

California
• Pacific Gas & Electric canceled the scheduled 2025 retirement of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant after officials decided to keep it running for at least five more years, citing growing power demand. 
• California-based startups Kairos and Oklo have signed up to provide power from small nuclear reactors to Google and Switch, respectively, for data centers. 

Colorado
• Colorado lawmakers seek to classify nuclear power as “clean energy” to expedite replacing retired coal plants with reactors.
• Mining firms hope to revive uranium extraction in western Colorado’s Uravan Mineral Belt. 
• Some northwestern counties have proposed hosting a nuclear waste repository to buoy the economy amid coal plant and mine closures. 

Idaho
•The Idaho National Laboratory — home to Experimental Breeder Reactor-I, where nuclear fission was first used to generate and transmit electricity in 1951 — is now a research center for next-generation reactors. 

Nevada
• In 2002, Congress approved the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository as the long-term home of the nation’s nuclear waste, or spent fuel, but in 2011, the project was canceled following intense local opposition. However, the Trump administration hinted at restarting construction. 
• Project 2025, the Trump administration’s far-right playbook, wants to resume nuclear warhead testing at the Nevada Test Site.

New Mexico
• Los Alamos National Laboratory is gearing up to produce up to 30 plutonium pits — the core of nuclear warheads — annually to upgrade the aging arsenal. 
• New uranium mines have been proposed for the Mount Taylor area, which is still contaminated by Cold War-era mines. 

Oregon
• Portland-based NuScale is a pioneer in small modular reactors, but its flagship project — building a generating facility in Idaho to power municipal utilities — was canceled over rising costs. 
• Lawmakers are looking to weaken a 1980s state law that makes it almost impossible to build new reactors. 

Utah 
• Gov. Spencer Cox, R, is pushing nuclear reactor development to help double the state’s power production over the next decade. 
• Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill is the nation’s only operating uranium-processing plant, but other firms want to reopen the Shootaring Mill west of Lake Powell and construct a new one at Green River. 
• The Lisbon Valley south of Moab, which was at the heart of the Colorado Plateau’s Cold War uranium boom, is again being targeted by uranium companies.  

Washington
• Amazon and Energy Northwest want to deploy small modular reactors here to power data centers, boosting the existing Columbia nuclear plant.  

Wyoming
• Bill Gates-backed TerraPower has begun constructing facilities for an advanced nuclear reactor in Kemmerer. 
• A Gillette machinery firm wants to make Wyoming a microreactor-manufacturing hub.
• A company hopes to use up to eight microreactors to power its Green River trona mine. 

SOURCES: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, WISE Uranium Project.