In June 2025, five US states moved forward on separate nuclear energy initiatives within the same month — a level of simultaneous state-level activity that reflects how quickly nuclear power has shifted from fringe consideration to mainstream planning. Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Iowa, and North Dakota each advanced efforts through different mechanisms: utility board endorsements, preliminary siting studies, legislative committee votes, and regulatory certificates.
The specifics vary widely by state, and so do the obstacles.
Five states push nuclear energy forward in a single month
June 2025 wasn’t a single announcement or a coordinated federal push. It was five states acting independently, each hitting a distinct milestone in the same 30-day window. Colorado Springs Utilities voted unanimously to include nuclear in its long-term energy plan. Arizona’s three biggest utilities launched a joint siting study. New Jersey moved nuclear procurement legislation through committee. Iowa’s Utilities Commission approved a restart certificate. North Dakota’s feasibility committee met to weigh a key legal barrier.
That breadth of activity signals something real: nuclear power is no longer a speculative option in state energy planning. It’s becoming a line item.
Colorado and Arizona utilities begin formal nuclear planning processes
On June 17, the Colorado Springs Utilities board unanimously endorsed updated recommendations to its Sustainable Energy Plan—a long-range roadmap running through 2045. The plan explicitly names nuclear energy as a dispatchable resource option alongside natural gas, renewables, and battery storage.
CEO Travas Deal reinforced that direction during his June 24 State of the Utilities address, citing bipartisan political support, technology advances, and safety improvements as reasons nuclear has become more viable. He was careful not to oversell it. “Still got a lot of legwork to do,” he said.
Arizona moved faster on paper, though it hit a financial wall. On June 24, the state’s three largest utilities — Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, and Tucson Electric Power — announced a joint preliminary siting study to identify potential locations for a new nuclear plant. The study is expected to wrap up within six months and will include community outreach near potential sites.
The announcement came with a notable setback: the Department of Energy had rejected the utilities’ joint application for a $25 million grant to cover early site permit application costs. The utilities disclosed the rejection in the same statement. If the siting study concludes favorably, the companies would still need to decide whether to pursue a formal early site permit application with the NRC—a separate and more demanding step.
Arizona already hosts Palo Verde, the largest nuclear facility in the country, with roughly 4,000 MWe of combined capacity across three reactors. Any new plant would be built alongside that existing infrastructure, not as a replacement for it.
New Jersey legislation and Iowa restart approval mark regulatory progress
In New Jersey, the Power NJ Act cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee on June 23. If passed into law, the bill would direct the state’s Board of Public Utilities—working with the Economic Development Authority—to establish an advanced nuclear energy facilities procurement program.
The responsibilities assigned to the board are specific: issuing requests for interest, reviewing submissions, granting provisional qualification status to qualifying projects, and establishing a reliable capacity certificate program to provide revenue support for approved facilities. The bill hasn’t become law yet, but clearing committee is a meaningful step in the legislative process.
Iowa’s news was more concrete. On June 18, the Iowa Utilities Commission issued a certificate of public convenience, use, and necessity to NextEra Energy, authorizing construction, operation, and maintenance of the 615-MWe Duane Arnold plant. The certificate applies specifically to that facility — any changes to the terms would require a formal amendment.
NextEra still has conditions to meet, including securing a generator interconnection agreement and advancing through the NRC’s licensing process. The certificate is a regulatory green light, not a construction start.
North Dakota feasibility study flags radioactive waste storage as barrier
North Dakota doesn’t have any operating nuclear plants. In 2024, state lawmakers created an interim advanced nuclear energy committee to study the feasibility of building one. That committee met on June 16 to hear from Nucleon Energy, the firm hired to conduct the feasibility analysis.
Nucleon’s most significant finding: North Dakota’s existing ban on storing high-level radioactive waste could deter any developer from building in the state. No nuclear plant operates without producing spent fuel, and spent fuel requires on-site storage—at least temporarily. The firm recommended adding a statutory exception to the ban, specifically to allow temporary on-site storage at future nuclear facilities. That recommendation now sits with the committee and, eventually, the legislature.
Background: Why states are revisiting nuclear energy now
The activity across these five states doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Bipartisan interest in nuclear power has grown steadily, driven by two converging pressures: decarbonization goals that require firm, dispatchable electricity, and growing skepticism that renewables alone can meet grid reliability needs.
Advanced reactor designs and small modular reactors have also changed the calculus, lowering some of the technical and financial barriers that made new nuclear construction nearly unthinkable in the US for decades. Regulatory tools have helped as well. The NRC’s early site permit process lets utilities evaluate and de-risk a site before committing to a full construction and operating license application—reducing upfront exposure considerably.
Taken together, June 2025 offers a snapshot of where nuclear energy stands in the US: past the point of theoretical discussion, but still well short of construction. Colorado is planning. Arizona is studying sites. New Jersey is legislating. Iowa has a certificate. North Dakota is working through legal barriers. Each state is at a different stage, moving at its own pace, toward an outcome that remains uncertain but no longer unlikely.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.
