Perhaps more notable, however, is the response to the announcement here in Ohio. State leaders welcomed the project immediately, citing “new jobs,” “affordable power,” and their goal of making Ohio a “strategic hub for clean energy growth.” In fact, local officials and leaders across the country are asking Oklo how similar projects might be brought to their own communities.
It is a watershed moment for nuclear power. There is a growing recognition that today’s cutting-edge reactors are not the ones that shaped public debate decades ago. The old images of towering concrete plants are giving way to a new generation of smaller, safer, and more efficient technology. They look more like A-frame homes in the mountains.
These advanced reactors produce large amounts of clean electricity continuously, day and night. They are compact, designed to shut themselves down without outside power or human intervention, and built to operate with far less waste than earlier designs.
Oklo’s reactors, for example, generate about 75 megawatts each (enough to power tens of thousands of homes), occupy only a few acres, and use advanced fuels that reduce waste and, in some cases, allow used fuel to be recycled. This includes substantial resources of plutonium left over from the Cold War; a win-win that no longer requires us to maintain storage of old fuel and recycles it over and over to provide clean energy.
The reason this technology is suddenly in such high demand is simple. Cloud computing and advanced manufacturing require enormous amounts of electricity delivered continuously.
A modern data center can draw as much power as a midsize city. Wind and solar cannot meet that need on their own, while natural gas is prone to price swings and supply disruptions and remains carbon-intensive. Nuclear is by far the cleanest and most reliable source.
Yet for years, federal policy moved in the opposite direction away from nuclear power. Under the Biden administration, energy policy favored wind and solar tied to Green New Deal ambitions even as those sources proved difficult to scale and unable to meet rising demand.
Nuclear, the one clean source capable of operating at full scale, was effectively ignored. States like New York and California even pushed to close existing plants, only to reverse course when reliability concerns and energy shortages made those decisions untenable.
That momentum is now moving the other way. The Trump administration has streamlined permitting, supported advanced reactors, and treated energy infrastructure as something to be built rather than avoided. Those changes created the conditions that allow investments like Meta’s and Oklo’s to move forward.
Now, companies are committing billions of dollars to new nuclear projects, and states like Ohio are eager to be chosen as an early destination.
Our state has long been an energy and manufacturing center, from coal and steel to natural gas. Advanced nuclear energy now appears to be joining that list. The Pike County project suggests that the next generation of industry can grow in the same places that powered its predecessors.
Importantly, the implications extend far beyond one project or one state. The global race to lead in artificial intelligence is also a race to secure reliable energy.
Countries that can generate clean, reliable power at scale will shape the future of technology and national security. Those that cannot will find themselves dependent on others and subject to dangerous new threats.
Add in the jobs, investment, and energy stability that come with producing the power a modern economy requires, and it’s not hard to see why the old reflex to say no is giving way to a resounding yes. This one is really a no-brainer.
When it comes to advanced nuclear energy, the message from Ohio is clear. The longstanding home of American industry is ready to lead the way into the future of American power.
Ken Blackwell is a former Ohio Secretary of State, Ohio State Treasurer and former Mayor of Cincinnati.