Get yourself back to 2017. outer and The Shape of Water playing in theaters, Zohran Mamdani still known as the rapper Young Cardamom, and the Trump the administration, still in power, is eager to support its favored energy sources.

That year, the administration introduced a series of subsidies for struggling coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants, which faced increasing price pressure from gas and cheap renewables. The plan would have put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars. It didn’t work.

In the following years, the nuclear industry continued to face obstacles. Three nuclear plants have closed since 2020, while construction on two of only four reactors started since 2000 has been halted after a decade and billions of dollars after a political scandal. Coal, on the other hand, continues its long decline: It makes up just 17 percent of the US power mixdown from a high of 45 percent in 2010.

Today, both of these energy sources are getting a second chance. The difference this time is the buzz around AIbut the result is not clearly different.

Throughout 2025, the Trump administration is not only promoting nuclear, but positioning it as the specific solution to AI’s energy needs. In May, the president signed a series of executive orders intended to boost nuclear energy in the US, including ordering 10 new large reactors to be built by 2030. A Department of Energy pilot program created as a result of May’s executive orders—along with a serious reshuffling of the nation’s nuclear regulator—has already led to breakthroughs from small ones. Energy secretary Chris Wright SAYS in September that the development of AI “will be accelerated by the rapid opening and deployment of commercial nuclear power.”

The administration’s push is mirrored by investments from technology companies. Giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have signed several deals in recent years with nuclear companies to power data centers; Microsoft even participated the World Nuclear Association. Several retired reactors in the US are being considered for restart — including two of the three that have shut down in the past five years — along with the technology industry. support some of these arrangements. (This includes Microsoft’s high-profile reboot of the infamous Three Mile Island, which is also which is supported through a $1 billion loan from the federal government.) It’s a good time for the private and public sector to push nuclear: public support for nuclear power is the highest since 2010.

Despite everything of this, the practicalities of nuclear energy leave its future in doubt. Most of the costs of nuclear do not come from onerous regulations but from ESTABLISHING. The critics are be wary of juiced-up valuations for small modular reactor companies, especially those with deep connections to the Trump administration. An $80 billion deal the government struck with reactor giant Westinghouse in October was sparse on details, leaving more questions than answers for the industry. And despite high-profile tech deals that promise the reactors will be operational in a few years, timelines remain elusive.