The Biden administration released a roadmap Tuesday that plans to triple U.S. nuclear capacity by mid-century.
The plan sets a goal of 200 gigawatts of new capacity by 2050, more than triple the 2020 capacity. This will require the development of multiple new power sources, including large and small modular plants, as well as retrofitting existing reactors and restarting decommissioned reactors. This includes adding 35 gigawatts of new capacity by 2035 and a target of 15 gigawatts per year by 2040.
“Increasing sustainable production to approximately 15 gigawatts per year by 2040 will contribute to both the 2050 domestic deployment goals and project deployment around the world, allowing more U.S. nuclear products and services to be exported.” “This is critical to ensuring that we can achieve this goal,” the administration's roadmap states.
“This will add hundreds of thousands of good-paying construction and operations jobs across the United States that will be sustained for decades. Achieving this production rate will require an expanded workforce , a robust supply chain for fuel and parts, and long-term solutions to manage spent fuel.”
The strategy outlined is part of the Biden administration's concerted push to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a goal the incoming Trump administration is likely to abandon. However, there is bipartisan support in Congress for expanding the introduction of nuclear power, and President-elect Trump has signaled his support, calling for the construction of new reactors during the 2024 campaign.
The framework relies on existing federal authorities, but requires new funding, which bipartisan nuclear supporters in Congress must allocate to fill the gaps.
The move comes months after Pennsylvania announced it would restart one of its nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island, the site of a near-meltdown in the 1970s, to power Microsoft's data centers. . Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), a hard-line conservative who represents the region, and his 2024 Democratic opponent, Rep. Janelle Stillson, both supported reopening.
