Nuclear Power’s Reboot

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The Wall Street Journal

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4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

The U.S. pioneered early nuclear technologies—not only for war, but also for peacetime, in the form of abundant nuclear energy. After a surge in new reactor construction, the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island precipitated the end of nuclear energy’s expansion in America. But recent calls for reliable, clean energy to fuel AI data centers have shifted attitudes and increased investment and innovation in the industry. Will the AI race be enough to reboot nuclear energy in the U.S.? This episode is part of The Wall Street Journal’s USA250: The Story of the World’s Greatest Economy, a collection of articles, videos and podcasts aiming to offer a deeper understanding of how America has evolved. Listen to previous installments of our USA250 podcast: The Struggle To Keep America’s Workers Safe An Economy Built on Speculation America’s Road to a DIY Retirement Further Reading: Why Fusion Is Considered Energy’s Elusive Holy Grail America’s First Commercial Nuclear-Power Projects in a Decade Just Broke Ground ‘Three New York Cities’ Worth of Power: AI Is Stressing the Grid Inside the Audacious Plan to Reopen Three Mile Island’s Nuclear Plant Five Things to Know About AI’s Thirst for Energy ‘It’s Time for Nuclear’ to Meet Growing U.S. Power Needs, Trump Declares Nuclear Power Is Making a Comeback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a new era of American innovation.
0:03.0	Google is offering free AI training to U.S. small businesses with the Google AI professional
0:08.1	certificate so they can start using AI to get more done.
0:11.8	Learn more at g.co slash American innovation.
0:16.6	The Miss America competition in 2023 included a lot of what you'd expect from the pageant stage.
0:23.8	Sequins, smiles, stilettos.
0:26.6	Thousands of candidates competed across the country this year at the local and state level,
0:32.3	and it has come down to these 51 candidates competing to be Miss America, 2023.
0:40.2	And of course, coordinated dance moves.
0:46.6	But amongst all the fanfare, there was a hint about where our country's energy future is headed.
0:52.7	Miss Wisconsin had something to say about it.
0:55.5	As a nuclear engineer, I'm here to tell you the time to change is now. Nuclear energy is a safe,
1:02.4	effective, and zero-carbon method of producing power. Let's embrace clean energy for a cleaner
1:08.3	future.
1:14.0	I did not, first of all, think I was going to win Miss America.
1:18.3	Second of all, think a nuclear engineer would become Miss America, but it was such an awesome... Grace Vanderhye, aka Miss Wisconsin, ran on a platform of expanding nuclear power and was
1:24.3	crowned Miss America at a pivotal time for energy politics.
1:27.6	It was such an awesome time because that was right before AI and all of these energy conversations really started taking place.
1:35.3	And I sort of got to be on the forefront of energy conversations and energy education for Americans.
1:42.3	Now, just a few years later, we're entering what the Trump administration is calling a nuclear
1:48.0	renaissance. Last year, venture capitalists announced 45 new nuclear energy deals
1:53.8	totaling $5.5 billion billion, according to Pitchbook. That's over seven times as many deals as
	...

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