Trump Administration Bets Big on Nuclear Energy to Power AI Data Centers

I'm Matt Gulka in Washington where the Trump administration is making a big bet on nuclear energy. The average midsize data center needs about 40 megawatts of power. That's about the same amount of electricity used to power 24,000 homes or even a small city like Aspen, Colorado. Demand and power consumption is only expected to go up as tech companies continue to build more for the artificial intelligence boom. The beating heart of the nuclear industry will always be here in Idaho, but these technologies will thrive around our country and change the future of our country. Energy Secretary Chris Wright touted the Trump administration's efforts to advance nuclear power technologies this week as they race to meet that demand. They announced 17.5

billion dollars of loans would be available for companies to build 10 new large nuclear reactors around the country. We're going to build those two as fastly and as proudly as we can. At the same time, the government has been pushing companies to develop small modular nuclear reactors. That includes Oakllo in Texas, trying to meet a Trump administration goal of getting its nuclear reactor online by July 4th, laid out in executive orders signed last year. We still have an edge in innovation in designs and underlying technologies, but that doesn't matter if we're not building them. Oaklo says they built their reactor in just 229 days, one of the fastest timelines ever. Two new

reactors, one in Idaho and one in Utah, both reached criticality this month with Wright saying a third is on the way. Now we have the new nuclear age beginning right now, the golden era of nuclear energy with soon to be our third next generation nuclear reactor to turn on to go critical and maintain a sustaining chain reaction. Part of this push also has to do with military sustainability. The Army hopes portable nuclear reactors can power bases if the electrical grid were to go offline, so they wouldn't have to rely on diesel fuel reserves during disruptions or even cyber attacks. Reporting in Washington, I'm Matt Gulka.