European Nuclear Energy 2026 (Stockholm) — February 25, 2026 — Nuclear power is back. The question is whether it will last. At European Nuclear Energy 2026 in Stockholm, Radiant Energy Managing Director Madison Hilly delivered a clear warning: today’s momentum is real—but fragile. History, she noted, is full of countries that built nuclear fleets, only to abandon them. For this resurgence to last, it must rest on durable public and political support.

Hilly began by illustrating how American support is shifting at a remarkable pace, including institutional change at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Energy Council (NEC), the passage of bipartisan federal funding and legislation, and the signing of lucrative long-term contracts to restart existing reactors. Furthermore, developers are coalescing into consortia aimed at delivering standardized fleets of new reactors.

However, Hilly stressed that this flurry of activity is “the behavior of a company that woke up to a historic opportunity and realized it was completely unprepared to meet it.” She suggested the situation is better characterized as an "emergency response" following three decades of decline, rather than a measured industrial strategy. She pointed out the U.S. nuclear sector’s recent peril, losing six gigawatts of capacity in only a few years to deregulated markets favoring natural gas and subsidized renewables. The closure of profitable plants like Indian Point, alongside the abandonment of major construction projects like VC Summer, underscore the fragility of past commitments. While the Vogtle project was eventually finished, it cost $35 billion and 17 years—more than double the initial estimates on both counts.

Furthermore, Hilly asserted that the current renaissance is primarily driven by three crisis-related factors. First, the Russian invasion of Ukraine thrust energy security back into the forefront of global policy, elevating nuclear's role in the conversation for the first time since the Cold War. Second, a decade of underinvestment in the grid and poor policy choices have led to rapidly rising electricity costs, outpacing both wage growth and inflation, making power prices a pressing public concern. Third, the unpredicted, enormous power demands of advanced computing and data centers have created a profound demand shock that the American grid is unprepared to meet, driving a search for reliable, large-scale power sources.

The U.S. is not unique in its past failures. Across the West, a consistent pattern exists of building nuclear capacity and subsequently dismantling it. Germany serves as a stark example, systematically decommissioning one of the world's most successful nuclear fleets, only to find itself reliant on Russian natural gas and forced to burn more coal during a crisis.

Hilly cautioned that this pattern suggests that the current momentum, if based solely on favorable economics and crises, is inherently fragile. Radiant Energy Group’s comprehensive global polling on nuclear attitudes reveals an uncomfortable truth: support is neither durable nor broad. Perhaps counterintuitively, she posited, the oldest demographics in high-income countries are often the most supportive of nuclear, while young people are among the least. Furthermore, strong concern about climate change does not automatically translate into support for nuclear, as evidenced by the significant gap in support among climate-concerned individuals in countries like Sweden.

This indicates that while building technology is critical, it is insufficient on its own. As crises inevitably fade, governments change, and projects face delays and overruns, public support may erode, potentially repeating the historical cycle of collapse—but this cycle can be broken.

A Two-Pronged Strategy: Extending Life and Building Support

However, all is not doom and gloom, as Hilly offered a practical solution: the industry must adopt a two-pronged strategy focused on maximizing the value of existing assets and proactively building public goodwill.

First, Hilly suggested the most immediate and cost-effective path to increasing clean, reliable power is to preserve and restart existing reactors. Public opinion is overwhelmingly opposed to nuclear phaseouts and favors keeping current plants running. Extending the operational lives of reactors, with proper maintenance and component replacement, is technically feasible, with vintage reactors now seeing extensions up to 80 years. Additionally, restarting closed plants is both possible and economically advantageous. For investors and policymakers, the ability to successfully execute these bare minimum steps—keeping existing plants running and restarting recently closed ones—is a critical credibility test. If the industry cannot manage familiar technology and existing infrastructure, confidence in its ability to deliver complex, first-of-a-kind new builds will be limited.

Second, Hilly emphasized that the industry must recognize that technology does not speak for itself. Past successes were not enough to prevent a three-decade "dark age" for nuclear in the West. Industry leaders must stop assuming the public will automatically accept nuclear and instead work to make it something people genuinely want. Initial messaging experiments, such as those conducted in Germany, show that public opinion is not fixed. Openly and transparently discussing topics like waste management and fuel recycling can significantly increase support. She urged stakeholders to engage with the public, activate existing advocates, and invest substantially in building support, particularly among young people and women, the demographics currently least supportive of the technology.

The present moment represents an extraordinary opportunity for nuclear power. However, moments pass. The long-term success of the nuclear renaissance depends not only on breaking ground but on the foundational public and political support built alongside them. The industry must commit to making nuclear power an enduring choice, protecting what is built today, and securing the capacity to build even more for the future.