The Audacious Reboot of America's Nuclear Energy Program

AI and competition with China are pushing startups to reinvent atomic energy, backed by huge private capital

- Heather Somerville

Oak Ridge, Tenn., earned the moniker "Atomic City" as a base for the Manhattan Project and later as a center of the U.S. nuclear power program.

Now, it is home to a group of scientists at Standard Nuclear who are trying—against all odds—to power up America's next nuclear era.

They are developing meltdown-resistant fuel for a smaller, safer type of nuclear reactor that has become an imperative for meeting modern energy needs, including both strategic and industrial independence from China and the rise of power-hungry artificial intelligence.

So strong was their conviction in the breakthrough that more than 40 employees of the startup's precursor worked for about eight months with little or no pay. Some sold their homes or downsized, juggling mortgages and daycare expenses, convinced the departure of a single scientist would risk sacrificing their progress.

Building advanced AI systems will take city-sized amounts of power and a low-carbon energy source such as nuclear is the preferred choice. Microsoft, Meta and other tech giants are putting big money into revitalizing reactors that are decades old, and sometimes even being decommissioned. But Big Tech and venture-capital money is also being steered into new modular reactors designed with safety considerations informed by over a half-century of nuclear mishaps.

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, OpenAI leader Sam Altman and Bill Gates are among the tech titans who have placed their bets. Since 2021, venture capitalists have invested $2.5 billion in U.S. next-generation nuclear technology, according to data firm PitchBook. Most years before that, investment hovered near zero.

"It's time for nuclear," President Trump said last month at the White House, signing four new executive orders aimed at accelerating nuclear-power deployment.