DOE Targets Massive Nuclear Expansion To Meet AI Power Demand

Key Takeaways

• Major Nuclear Investment Shift: Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the DOE’s Loan Programs Office will direct most of its funding toward getting new nuclear power plants built for the first time in decades.
  
• AI Driving Energy Demand: Massive electricity needs from artificial intelligence and data centers are attracting billions in private capital, which DOE will leverage with low-cost federal financing.
  
• Regulatory Barriers Being Removed: With four new executive orders and a push to cut burdensome rules, the Trump administration is positioning nuclear energy as a cornerstone of America’s economic and national security strategy.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright delivered a clear message Monday: America is getting back into the nuclear power business, and the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is about to become the engine that makes it happen. Speaking at the American Nuclear Society conference, Wright said the LPO will be heavily focused on financing nuclear power plants. “By far the biggest use of those dollars will be for nuclear power plants to get those first plants built,” he explained.

During President Trump’s first term, the LPO funded only the Vogtle reactors in Georgia. Today, the landscape is changing fast. While no new commercial reactors are currently under construction, several previously closed plants are preparing to restart, and there are active plans for both large reactors and the next generation of small modular units. The demand is being fueled by something Washington can no longer ignore: the massive electricity needs created by artificial intelligence and data centers.

Wright said AI will attract billions in private equity from “very creditworthy providers,” and the DOE plans to match that capital “3-to-1, maybe even up to 4-to-1, with low-cost debt dollars from the Loan Programs Office.” In other words, Washington is finally aligning with the free market instead of fighting it.

Earlier this year, President Trump signed four executive orders designed to speed up nuclear deployment. One senior administration official told FOX Business, “What we’re trying to accomplish here is unshackling this industry from stifling regulations that have held it back for too long.”

Nuclear energy, paired with AI-driven economic expansion, now sits at the center of Trump’s strategy to keep America competitive, secure, and energy dominant.