DOE Launches Nuclear Dominance Program to Secure Domestic Fuel by 2033
The Department of Energy's Defense Production Act (DPA) Nuclear Fuel Cycle Consortium just launched a domestic fuel initiative backed by more than 90 industry partners, aiming to lock in a reliable US nuclear supply chain by 2033. The program, called "Nuclear Dominance — 3 by 33," targets every link in the fuel cycle, from uranium milling and enrichment to fabrication and recycling.
The driving force is straightforward: AI's power appetite has rewritten the economics of nuclear energy. US data centers are forecast to need 106 gigawatts (GW) of power by 2035, nearly triple the 35 GW they consumed in 2024, according to BloombergNEF. Nuclear, always-on and carbon-free, is one of the few sources that can actually fill that gap.
Tech companies have already started writing checks. GoogleGOOGL and NextEra EnergyNEE are jointly investing $1.6B to restart Iowa's Duane Arnold plant, expected to deliver 615 megawatts to power Google's AI operations by 2029. Microsoft'sMSFT Three Mile Island restart targets 2027. The US also partnered with Westinghouse, Brookfield Asset ManagementBAM, and CamecoCCJ on an $80B reactor deployment tied to a Japan trade deal earmarking $100B for US projects.
The supply chain problem behind the initiative
All of this reactor ambition hits a wall without domestic fuel. The US has historically leaned on foreign enriched uranium, a vulnerability the DPA Consortium is explicitly designed to close.
The initiative's three goals: build a cost-competitive domestic supply chain, accelerate advanced reactor deployment, and use the DPA framework to align financing, workforce development, and innovation across the industry. Work will proceed through a series of rapid 60-day sprints.
In 2025, global nuclear capacity actually shrank by 1.1 GW. Only two new reactors came online while seven were decommissioned. The industry is forecasting a rebound, 15 reactors are set to switch on this year, adding ~12 GW, but history isn't encouraging. The last US reactors built, at Georgia's Vogtle plant, ran years late and cost more than twice their $14B budget, per the same readthejoe.com report.
BloombergNEF lead nuclear analyst Chris Gadomski put the stakes plainly: "Unless the nuclear industry responds quickly, this opportunity may be lost to fossil fuels and renewables."
More than 50 reactors are scheduled to come online worldwide from 2027 through 2030, a meaningful buildout for an industry that's spent most of this century standing still. Whether a newly secured domestic fuel chain can keep pace with that construction pipeline is now a central question for both US energy security and the AI boom driving it.