The American Nuclear Society’s annual conference was well-timed in 2025, as the industry is riding a wave of optimism on a series of recent policy and market moves.
Panelists in the opening discussions June 16 noted the stark differences today compared to several years ago, when U.S. nuclear plants were being shut down because they were uneconomical to run.
Speakers also noted the cooperative effort that will be needed to turn this confluence of favorable factors into the increase in nuclear generation that so many of the 1,400-plus conference attendees hope to see.
ANS Executive Director Craig Piercy summed it up in opening remarks: “We’ve gone from how do we wind down what we have to how fast can we get more? … The challenge now is moving from that intention to that implementation.”
He cited indications that tax credits critical to making nuclear power economical will remain in place, and he cited President Trump’s May 23 executive orders intended to accelerate and expand development of nuclear generation, in part through streamlining oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (See Trump Orders Nuclear Regulatory Acceleration, Streamlining.)
If any further indication was needed that the 2025 conference came amid a time of momentous change, Trump provided it — firing NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson, who was appointed by President Biden and formerly chaired the commission.
Later June 16, ANS said in a news release: “A competent, effective and fully staffed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is essential to the rapid deployment of new reactors and advanced technologies. The arbitrary removal of commissioners without due cause creates regulatory uncertainty that threatens to delay America’s nuclear energy expansion.”
Speaking that morning, Piercy cautioned about the wholesale slash-and-burn approach implied in Trump’s May 23 directive: “We all have to keep an open mind, but we have to get this right. A full reset of regulation at this stage will likely slow things to a crawl. It’s time we put away the meat cleaver and pull out the scalpel, because we need NRC on the road to recovery as soon as possible.”
The largest U.S. commercial nuclear operator, Constellation Energy, was represented at the conference by Chief Generation Officer Bryan Hanson, who tempered the grandest aspirations for U.S. nuclear with some hard statistics: The United States built about 100 GW of civilian nuclear capacity roughly from 1965 to 1990, then little more than zero since then. Now President Trump wants to reach 400 GW between 2025 and 2050.
“So the challenge is real,” he said. “The hearts and minds of all of you in the room today have to embrace and accept that challenge that says what they did from 1965 to 1990 was incredibly challenging.”
What is not so challenging as it appears, Hanson said, is meeting the coming growth of load demand. “I think the forecasts are incredible at best,” he said. And he noted a recent Duke University study showing extensive U.S. grid capacity could be freed up with demand response. (See U.S. Grid Has Flexible ‘Headroom’ for Data Center Demand Growth.)
NRC Commissioner Matthew Marzano noted this is not the first “nuclear renaissance” declared in recent memory: Construction of new reactors begun in Georgia (Plant Vogtle) in 2009 and South Carolina (V.C. Summer) in 2013 was heralded as such. But Vogtle took more than a decade and more than $30 billion to complete. The V.C. Summer expansion was abandoned after $9 billion was poured into it.
“I don’t like to use the word, but there was the first ‘renaissance,’ and V.C. Summer was kind of the death knell of that when that project shut down,” he said. “But I think that this moment is different. There is a confluence of factors … that really makes a huge difference in terms of the future. And so we’re very excited. And of course, this administration has very ambitious goals.”
Marzano said the ADVANCE Act of 2024 is a springboard toward those goals, making the NRC more efficient and effective.
He spoke of a cultural shift under way within the NRC after the ADVANCE Act but called it a series of small steps that add up to a very big change — a different approach from the one Trump laid out in May.
Marzano also asked for input on the process: “We won’t be able to see everything. So that’s where our licensees, our applicants, our stakeholders are going to be very important in helping NRC identify where its blind spots are.”
Much more is on the agenda at the ANS conference as it continues through June 18, including the workforce development and technology evolution the nuclear power industry will need if it is to exploit the growth potential that stands before it now. But that growth set the tone for the introductory discussions.
Kirsten Laurin-Kovitz, associate laboratory director for nuclear technologies and national security at Argonne National Laboratory, said: “Everything is aligning for nuclear energy, something we haven’t seen since the 1970s. But this isn’t just a comeback story. It is nuclear energy’s moment to truly energize the world.”
GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy Chief Commercial Officer Nicole Holmes listed four factors critical to nuclear seizing the moment:
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- Companies in the nuclear sector like to be the second to go, but somebody actually has to go first.
- The industry must dramatically improve its delivery model, and the government needs to offer support for early movers to have assurance of completion amid the risks.
- There need to be partnerships, ecosystems and an array of people supporting the vision.
- The United States needs to look beyond its own borders.
The first small modular reactor in North America, for example, is a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 that Ontario Power Generation will operate near Toronto, and the reactor pressure vessel was made in Italy.
“We need to cast a global vision,” Holmes said. “We’re not going to do this all in the United States.”
One obvious example is the leadership that controls and guides this growth, she said, apparently adding one more yellow flag to those raised by other speakers referring to Trump’s changes.
“Really, we need to continue to be in a leadership position on how we think about regulation and training programs,” she said. “The world is looking to the U.S. a bit to say, ‘How are we doing this?’ And I think not doing a wholesale changeover of what’s been working, just improving, that would be a smart idea for continued collaboration.”
Constellation’s Hanson was asked when the nation’s largest nuclear operator might expand its fleet with a new build.
After the spinoff from Exelon in 2022, he said, “New nuclear was nowhere on our strategy. I would say it’s starting to creep up into the strategy now, because that’s what our customers want.”
But first, the company will concentrate on existing assets — restart of Unit 1 at the former Three Mile Island and uprates of operating reactors elsewhere. That will add 2 GW of capacity and cost $7 billion to $8 billion.
“So our dance card is pretty full, when you think about it,” Hanson said.
