Forty-five gigawatts of nuclear electricity capacity is in the pipeline to serve technology company power demand, representing nearly half of the current US nuclear fleet's generating capacity, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute's State of the Nuclear Industry 2026 report. The figure reflects the growing role of nuclear power purchase agreements in meeting artificial intelligence data center energy requirements.

The US nuclear fleet currently consists of 94 operating commercial reactors, with 95 percent of the fleet intending to operate for 80 years or more. Long-term operations licenses allow reactors to operate well beyond their original 40-year design life, providing a stable, low-variable-cost generation base.

The Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program selected 11 advanced nuclear reactor concepts to participate in an initiative targeting criticality demonstrations beginning on July 4, 2026. The program is designed to compress the timeline from concept development to physical demonstration for small modular and advanced reactor designs.

New York has committed to 5 gigawatts of new nuclear generating capacity as part of its clean energy goals. At the federal level, executive orders signed in May 2025 set targets for 400 gigawatts of total nuclear capacity by 2050, 5 gigawatts of power uprates at existing plants, and 10 large reactors under construction by 2030.

NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick described the state of the nuclear industry as strong and strengthening at the organization's 2026 Nuclear Energy Policy Forum.

Source: Nuclear Energy Institute -- https://www.nei.org/news/state-of-the-nuclear-industry-2026