A NextGen student team working with Microsoft presented this December 2025 readout for OpenMinds on how to speed up nuclear deployment in the U.S. Students from MIT Sloan, the University of Michigan, Stanford University and Columbia University mapped bottlenecks in permitting, supply chains and access to capital, and conducted 15 expert interviews. The team links nuclear to growing AI and data center electricity demand.
Key points
- U.S. nuclear has stagnated: in 2025 the U.S. had 94 operating reactors (97.0 GW) and none under construction, while China had 30 under construction.
- Uprates and restarts of existing plants are the fastest way to add capacity. The team's base case forecasts 1 GW of uprates by 2030 and 5 GW by 2040.
- The base case sees new large reactors reaching 50 GW and small modular reactors (SMRs) about 55 GW by 2050.
- Recommended actions include a government-backed first-loss guarantee for first-of-a-kind projects, a well-staffed one-stop shop for permitting, and investment in domestic enrichment.
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