The U.S. consumes over 4,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually. That number is about to climb, and existing grid infrastructure can’t keep up.
AI and data center growth are creating electricity deficits that require structural solutions. Nuclear energy currently provides 19% of U.S. electricity generation and over 50% of carbon-free power. As demand grows an estimated 2% to 3% annually through 2030 and beyond, nuclear infrastructure is positioned to play a critical role in meeting that expansion.1
This isn’t an energy commodity play. It’s infrastructure economics.
Why Is AI Creating an Electricity Supply Gap?
Most investors still treat nuclear energy as a political debate or a uranium price bet. That framing misses the fundamental shift happening in U.S. power markets.
Data centers consumed 176 TWh of electricity in 2023. By 2028, that figure is estimated to reach 325 to 580 TWh, representing 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity consumption. This load growth has tripled over the past decade and may double or triple again by 2028.2
The U.S. generates electricity from six primary sources: Natural gas, nuclear, coal, wind, solar and hydropower.
Coal’s share will decline. Natural gas and nuclear stand to gain market share in a growing pie. Companies positioned in nuclear infrastructure have the potential to increase their market share in an expanding market. That’s a favorable investment dynamic that may transcend commodity price volatility.
Public sentiment has shifted too. U.S. public support for nuclear energy reached 61% in 2025, near record highs compared to 51% in 2022. Wall Street Journal readers indicated they would prefer a nuclear power plant in their backyard over a wind or solar farm. That’s a dramatic reversal from the Three Mile Island and Fukushima era.
How Do Nuclear Infrastructure Economics Differ from Commodity Plays?
Nuclear assets can generate long-duration cash flows through regulated rate structures and capacity payments. These are income-generating infrastructure assets, not commodity exposures tied to fuel price swings.
The clearest example: Constellation Energy’s agreement with Microsoft to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1.
Constellation plans to invest $1.6 billion to restart the 835-MW reactor by 2028. Microsoft has agreed to purchase electricity from the facility over a 20-year period at a set rate. The DOE closed on a $1 billion loan to support the restart in November 2025.3
This contract structure transforms volatile wholesale market cash flows into secured, long-term revenue streams backed by one of the highest-rated counterparties in the world. Constellation expects this fixed-price contract to increase its annual base earnings per share growth rate from 10% to 13% from 2024 to 2030.
The unit is projected to supply enough electricity to meet approximately six years of forecasted load growth in Pennsylvania. Megacap technology companies are willing to enter long-term contracts because data center campuses require reliable, low-cost power at scale. Nuclear facilities can provide that baseload capacity with known economics and regulatory pathways.
What’s the Uranium Enrichment Bottleneck?
The constraint in scaling nuclear capacity isn’t uranium availability. It’s enrichment capacity, specifically domestic enrichment capacity that doesn’t rely on Russian or Chinese supply sources.
Nuclear reactors require enriched uranium to generate the heat that creates steam, turns turbines, and produces electricity. The U.S. has historically depended on foreign sources for enriched uranium. That’s changing.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $2.7 billion in January 2026 to strengthen domestic enrichment services over the next ten years. The funding was distributed equally ($900 million each) to American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, and Orano Federal Services to expand domestic capacity for low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium.
Centrus Energy’s Piketon plant is currently the only facility in the U.S. licensed to enrich uranium up to 19.75% and is the first domestic plant to start enrichment production since the 1950s. The company received a $900 million task order to create domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, with first new production capacity expected online in 2029.
This isn’t political signaling. This is capital deployment.
Federal policy support has moved from rhetoric into operational funding. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has a nuclear background (he studied nuclear fusion at MIT) and the administration has signed executive orders designed to accelerate nuclear power development with a goal of adding 300 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2050.
Why Focus on Reactor Life Extensions and Restarts?
Building new nuclear reactors requires decades and tens of billions in capital. Restarting and extending existing reactors offers a faster, more economical path to capacity expansion.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is approving reactor life extensions from 60 years to 80 years. As of August 2025, reactors approved to 80 years include Turkey Point 3&4, Peach Bottom 2&3, Surry 1&2, North Anna 1&2, Monticello, Oconee 1-3, Virgil C. Summer 1, and Point Beach 1&2.
U.S. nuclear capacity factors have remained near 90% since the turn of the century. The fleet produces more electricity from 94 reactors today than it did from 104 in the early 2000s. That demonstrates operational excellence and successful uprate programs.
Reactor restarts and life extensions provide known economics, proven technology, and regulatory approval pathways. Small modular reactors remain speculative. No SMRs are operating in the U.S. today, and the regulatory approval process for new reactor technologies can extend timelines and increase costs, which challenges economic viability.
Proven reactor technologies with NRC approval may represent lower-risk infrastructure investments.
How Should Advisors Evaluate Nuclear Infrastructure Investments?
The investment framework for nuclear infrastructure mirrors the approach used during the shale development cycle: identify low-cost producers in geographically advantageous positions with strong management teams and high-quality counterparties.
Geographic positioning matters. Data centers aren’t being built uniformly across the U.S. Electricity demand growth will concentrate in regions where data center campuses are located. Nuclear operators positioned in those geographic areas, with the ability to deliver low-cost power through existing transmission infrastructure, may hold structural advantages.
Management teams matter. Operators with track records of building and operating nuclear facilities on time and on budget are better positioned to capture capital deployment opportunities.
Counterparty quality matters. Long-term contracts (10 to 20 years) with investment-grade technology companies provide the revenue visibility that infrastructure investors typically require.
Companies positioned across the nuclear value chain include:
- Centrus Energy: Domestic uranium enrichment capacity
- Cameco: Uranium mining and production
- BWX Technologies: Nuclear components and fuel
- Constellation Energy: Largest nuclear fleet operator in the U.S.
- Vistra Energy: Nuclear generation and power marketing
- Talen Energy: Nuclear generation assets
These aren’t speculative plays on next-generation reactor technologies. These are companies operating existing nuclear assets and positioned in the relicensing and restart value chain.
What Makes This a Structural Opportunity?
The convergence of AI infrastructure demand, grid reliability concerns, and decarbonization mandates creates a structural tailwind for nuclear that may transcend political cycles. This is infrastructure necessity, not energy preference.
Electricity demand in the U.S. is projected to reach all-time highs in 2025 and 2026, breaking nearly two decades of flat demand. Total consumption is forecast to rise from about 4,110 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024 to more than 4,260 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026. Commercial and industrial sectors are growing at 2.6% and 2.1% annually, respectively.
By 2030, the U.S. economy may consume more electricity for processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined, including aluminum, steel, cement, and chemicals. Data center power demand is forecast to hit 106 gigawatts by 2035, a 36% jump from projections published just seven months earlier.
Nuclear infrastructure is the foundation that makes AI architecturally possible.
Federal loan programs, enrichment capacity expansion, reactor life extensions, and direct contracts with technology companies aren’t future possibilities. They’re current deployments.
Infrastructure outlasts narratives. Political winds shift. Energy demand compounds.
The investment case is structural, not speculative.
Ready to explore nuclear infrastructure investing in more depth? Download our complete guide to understanding the investment opportunity in nuclear energy.
Interested in accessing the opportunity? View TNUK’s fund page, our actively managed ETF, solely dedicated to nuclear.
FAQ
How much electricity do data centers currently consume in the U.S.?
Data centers consumed 176 TWh of electricity in 2023. By 2028, that figure is estimated to reach 325 to 580 TWh, representing between 6.7% and 12% of total U.S. electricity consumption.
What percentage of U.S. electricity comes from nuclear power?
Nuclear energy provides approximately 19% of U.S. electricity generation and accounts for over 50% of the nation’s carbon-free power production.
Are small modular reactors a viable investment today?
No SMRs are currently operating in the U.S. The regulatory approval process for new reactor technologies can extend timelines and increase costs. Proven reactor technologies with existing NRC approval may represent lower-risk infrastructure investments at this stage.
How are technology companies securing nuclear power for data centers?
Companies like Microsoft are entering into long-term power purchase agreements with nuclear operators. Microsoft’s 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy for Three Mile Island Unit 1 transforms volatile wholesale market exposure into secured, long-term revenue streams.
What federal funding is supporting domestic uranium enrichment?
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $2.7 billion in January 2026 to strengthen domestic enrichment services over ten years, distributed equally among American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, and Orano Federal Services.
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- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65264 ↩︎
- U.S Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers ↩︎
- Utility Dive: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-loan-constellation-crane-nuclear-restart/805923/ ↩︎