New York could build the first new commercial nuclear plant in the US for 15 years to meet the growing energy demand from AI data centers.

State governor Kathy Hochul has directed the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop and construct an advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York with a capacity of at least 1GW.

New York currently has 3.4GW of operational nuclear capacity, representing 42 percent of its low-carbon energy production.

“If you take nuclear off the table, you have to burn more fossil fuels,” Hochul said. “That’s not going to work for us here in New York.”

Citing a need to achieve “energy independence,” it is unclear whether the plant will be one large-scale unit or will encompass several small modular reactors (SMR).

Sites under consideration include three existing plants owned by Constellation Energy in upstate New York, according to WSJ.

Following the direction from the Governor, the NYPA will immediately commence an evaluation of potential technologies, models, and locations for the nuclear power plant and secure partnerships needed for the project.

Potential locations will be assessed for suitability based on public safety, strength of community support, compatibility with existing infrastructure, in addition to skilled labour and land availability. The assessment process will comprise site and technology feasibility assessments, and an evaluation of financing options.

The evaluation process will be conducted in concert with the master plan for nuclear development in New York, announced by Hochul earlier this year. The master plan is being led by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Department of Public Service.

The implications of the project are significant, as it is likely to act as a test case for President Trump's efforts to expedite the development and construction of nuclear power projects. In May, President Trump signed four executive orders aimed at quadrupling output by 2050. The measures were put in place, in part, because of the vast energy needs of AI data centers planned for sites across the US.

Data centers are increasingly targeting the nuclear power sector as a crucial energy source for their operations. In March, Google, Amazon, and Meta inked a pledge to triple global nuclear power.

Since then, Meta has signed a 20-year PPA with Constellation Energy for more than 1.1GW of power from a nuclear power plant in Clinton, Illinois. The PPA was the second Constellation signed with a major hyperscaler, having signed a 20-year PPA with Microsoft last year for the entire output of the revived Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

The data center sector has also backed the development of advanced nuclear power through several long-term agreements with SMR and microreactor firms. Google, AWS, Data4, and Endevour have all backed SMR firms in the last 12 months.

New York is facing an energy shortfall after the high-profile cancellation of several offshore wind farms. Last year, three projects with a combined capacity of more than 4GW were cancelled by NYSERDA, due to ”technical and commercial complexities between provisional awardees and their partners”.

The state of the sector has been impacted further as a result of the Trump administration's antagonism towards renewable energy. Mere weeks after his inauguration, President Trump froze approvals for wind and solar projects on federal lands and signed an executive order directing the Treasury Department to freeze new offshore wind leases.

Following this, in April, the Department of the Interior issued a stop-work order on the Equinor-backed Empire Wind 1 project, off the coast of New York. However, only weeks later in March, the stop work order was lifted, with work resuming on the 810MW project.