Wesoff, E. (2024, January 18). When will the next nuclear plant come online in the US? no one knows. Canary Media. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/nuclear/when-will-the-next-nuclear-plant-come-online-in-the-us-no-one-knows

The conditions for an “American nuclear renaissance” appear favorable, with government support, rising positive citizen sentiment, and global commitments to triple nuclear power by 2050. However, there are no plans for when the next US nuclear reactor will go online. Previous candidates, like NuScale’s small modular reactor for Utah, faced financial challenges, as with most nuclear reactors. Some potential future candidates include the restart of Michigan’s Palisades plant, Bill Gates’ Natrium reactor in Wyoming, and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor. Challenges such as regulatory hurdles, fuel supply issues, and economic viability all add to the uncertain future of new nuclear projects.

Although support for nuclear energy is on the rise in the government and in the citizens, there are still many hurdles that make nuclear power difficult to fully implement. Most reactors run into financial issues when being built, which is usually the main obstacle for starting plans for new reactors. This again relates to government funding and how much money we are willing to put into nuclear reactors, tying back to public support. If more people support nuclear energy, there will likely be more funding for nuclear energy in the near future. Right now, I don’t think a lot of people favor nuclear energy just because they are not educated on it; people only know about its dangers and may have false assumptions about it, like it emitting dangerous amounts of nuclear waste, which is just not true.