Hudson reported January 8 2026 that Republicans say safety has been a priority as lawmakers from both parties embrace atomic power as a critical energy source. U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D., Fla.) said the nuclear industry will wither if the public loses confidence in its safety.
Lawmakers from both parties want to usher in a new era of nuclear energy, but some Democrats say they are uneasy about how it is taking shape. At a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday, Democrats said they have safety concerns regarding the oversight of the nuclear build-out in the U.S. following President Trump’s firing of a commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year, as well as staff cuts and a shake-up from the Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’ve been supportive of [nuclear], and we’ve been supportive of it as Democrats mostly on a bipartisan basis, but all that is linked to safety,” said Frank Pallone (D., N.J.). “If anything happens that gives the impression or actually makes it so that people’s lives are at risk, or we have some kind of incident, that’s going to be the end of it. I’ll speak for myself but I won’t be able to support it anymore.”
Many Democrats emphasized how essential they think it is to build up the nuclear industry as a source of clean energy. Nuclear energy is appealing because it releases minimal carbon emissions while providing round-the-clock power—particularly as companies are looking to fuel their artificial intelligence ambitions. Plus it has support from the Trump administration, as the president has said he wants to quadruple nuclear power generation over the next 25 years.
“We need confidence in the safety of the reactors,” said Kathy Castor (D., Fla.). “If the American public loses that confidence, then the industry will wither.” Castor cited what she described as reckless attacks on other renewable-energy projects—such as wind power—and the independence of the NRC.
The lawmakers also said they are worried about how the nuclear industry—and the broader renewable-energy sector—can navigate regulatory and political instability amid the Trump administration’s focus on securing Venezuelan oil, as well as its recent halt on offshore wind projects. Lawmakers from both parties backed the Advance Act, passed in 2024, which directed the NRC to streamline its licensing process.
Republicans said they believe safety has been a priority, pointing to an announcement NRC made Monday that it for the first time approved replacement of analog safety equipment at a Pennsylvania plant with digital controls—which could enable other plants to do the same.
Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.) said it is important that the nuclear expansion “ensures safety, protects taxpayers and provides national security.”
“What we need to make sure people know is that there is a regulatory structure in place; there is technology in place. This is a different world,” he said.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed on the risks posed by China’s nuclear might, asserting that developing the energy source in the U.S. is a national security imperative amid worries that China is “zooming ahead” on nuclear.
The push for nuclear coincides with the booming demand for data centers to power artificial intelligence. Tech companies including Microsoft, Meta and Google have been driving the revival of nuclear energy in the U.S., including a deal to restart Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear power disaster in the country; a deal to buy power from the Clinton Clean Energy Center, an already operating nuclear plant in Illinois; and a plan to reopen the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a nuclear plant in Iowa that was closed after damage from a windstorm. New nuclear power capacity could potentially meet 14% of the projected increase in data center power demand over the next decade, according to a Deloitte analysis.
Investment in a U.S. nuclear future is ratcheting up. The U.S. Energy Department on Monday said it awarded $2.7 billion to nuclear fuel makers to boost the domestic supply of enriched uranium. What’s more, Trump Media & Technology Group and nuclear fusion firm TAE Technologies are looking for sites to build a fusion power plant, after agreeing to a merger late last year.
The energy in nuclear plants comes from fission, which splits atoms to produce energy, but there are hopes to develop nuclear fusion, the energy process that powers the sun by joining atoms together, at a commercial scale. That’s because it could provide more energy in a cleaner and safer process.
After a rocky past, the public mostly supports nuclear expansion: About six in 10 people in the U.S. say they want more nuclear power plants for electricity, according to the Pew Research Center—up from a 43% support rate in 2020.
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