In February of 2026, NIA released the U.S. Nuclear Energy Project Tracker to help stakeholders understand the status of early mover projects in the United States with respect to five key indicators: (1) site selection and site work, (2) licensing, (3) project teaming, (4) offtake, and (5) funding. The April 2026 update to that tracker is available today. Here are a few highlights:
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The NRC continues to move quickly on advanced reactors. Terrapower’s Natrium Wyoming project received a construction permit from the NRC in March. This review only took 18 months when it was originally scheduled to take 27 months. The NRC also received a new construction permit application from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign NANO Nuclear on April 2nd.
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All eleven of the Department of Energy Reactor Pilot Program (RPP) demonstration units are now represented in the tracker. Projects are included in the tracker when they have a specific site and significant licensing activity. All RPP units meet these criteria now. Many have also had their Preliminary Data Safety Analysis approved by DOE, which allows them to begin construction on their demo units. Beyond that, Radiant has begun residency in the EBRII DOME at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and Valar and Aalo Atomics have both shipped nuclear components to their sites.
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Hyperscalers and data centers continue to execute new offtake agreements to meet their growing electricity demand. Meta announced they will procure energy from new Terrapower Natrium reactors and Oklo Aurora units to be built in southern Ohio. These power-hungry offtakers allow the nuclear reactor companies involved to commit to new reactors beyond their “first of a kind” projects.
Check out the tracker for details on each project and stay tuned, as progress is accelerating with respect to all five key indicators.
The NIA US Nuclear Energy Project Tracker can be found at: U.S. Nuclear Energy Project Tracker | NIA
For more information on the five key indicators that NIA tracks, see our report: Progress of Early Mover Nuclear Projects: Key Indicators to Watch