Reject AI as Justification to Roll Back Nuclear Energy Regulations
Note: This section is adapted from the AI Now Institute’s November 2025 report Fission for Algorithms: The Undermining of Nuclear Regulation in Service of AI, written by Dr. Sofia Guerra and Dr. Heidy Khlaaf. Read the full report.
Because the staggering demand for energy to power AI data centers cannot be met with capacity from our existing power grid, AI firms are turning to nuclear as a source for additional power. The reality is that nuclear development timelines—often ten to twenty years—cannot safely match the rapid pace of AI development, but the government is fast-tracking nuclear development in ways that raise serious safety and oversight concerns.1 In this process, the US government is enforcing positions that have been independently deemed perilous for nuclear safety and security, threatening widespread, catastrophic risk to serve the demands of AI firms.2 The federal government must reject the use of AI as justification to roll back nuclear energy safety regulations put in place because of nuclear’s propensity for catastrophic risk.
- Sofia Guerra and Heidy Khlaaf, “Fission for Algorithms: The Undermining of Nuclear Regulation in Service of AI,” AI Now Institute, November 2025, https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/fission-for-algorithms. ↩︎
- Ibid at 13. ↩︎