Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call last year to develop advanced nuclear power facilities in upstate New York triggered protests from the usual anti-nuclear groups, including the Sierra Club. These critics are sounding the same safety alarms that have stalled nuclear development in the U.S. since Three Mile Island. But a next-generation nuclear fuel now being aggressively advanced by the Department of Energy could silence those concerns for good.

It’s called TRISO fuel, short for TRI-structural Isotropic, referring to the three material layers and the uniform protective coating surrounding each uranium fuel particle. TRISO fuel particles are tiny—about the size of a poppy seed. They consist of a uranium core encased in layers of carbon and silicon carbide. These protective layers act as a built-in safety system, making the particles extremely resistant to high temperatures. “TRISO particles cannot melt in a commercial high-temperature reactor,” according to a 2019 DOE report. The Biden-era DOE likewise praised TRISO’s safety advantages and invested in its development through tax credits under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

While nuclear power has an excellent safety record overall, a few high-profile disasters in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s earned public distrust. That’s what makes improved fuel technology so important. Public resistance to nuclear is primarily safety-driven, and TRISO directly addresses that concern better than legacy designs. It introduces a passive safety layer that doesn’t rely on mechanical processes or human judgment. Due to the innovative design of its protective coating, a Chernobyl- or Fukushima-style meltdown is physically impossible in commercial reactors using TRISO fuel.

While TRISO fuel technology isn’t exactly new, it hasn’t been brought to market as a commercially available fuel source—until now. Today, TRISO is no longer hypothetical. China has already demonstrated commercial deployment at grid scale. The U.S. is now trying to catch up through DOE-backed fuel initiatives and private-sector reactor development.

In February, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the first new fuel fabrication license in nearly 50 years for X-energy’s TRISO facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This approval followed the Department of Energy’s launch last year of an advanced nuclear fuel pilot program designed to fast-track production of fuels for next-generation modular and microreactors. The Trump administration has also moved to accelerate licensing and fuel production for TRISO producers, including Valar Atomics and Standard Nuclear.

Under Secretary Chris Wright’s leadership, the DOE is pushing American nuclear power forward after decades of underinvestment. Meanwhile, public opinion on nuclear power is shifting. About 60 percent of Americans favor expanded nuclear development, according to a Pew Research survey last year—an increase of more than 15 percentage points in the past decade.

It’s true that many Americans remain skeptical of the AI data centers that are driving our nation’s urgent demand for electricity. According to Gallup, seven in 10 Americans oppose construction of a data center in their hometown. A common concern is that these power-hungry facilities will drive up energy costs for consumers.

Several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Richard Blumenthal, have warned about the impact on Americans’ electricity bills. President Trump has said he does not want Americans to pay higher electricity bills because of data centers. The administration’s push to fast-track next-generation modular and micro nuclear power—as part of a “bring your own power” strategy—is meant to shield consumers from higher prices.

Accordingly, hyperscalers are betting their futures on next-generation nuclear. Google, Oracle, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are investing tens of billions of dollars in small modular reactors to power their data centers. This investment could have downstream benefits. The same kinds of small reactors powering data centers in the near term could deliver cleaner energy for factories, hospitals, and entire neighborhoods in years to come.

Nuclear power has a dramatically smaller land footprint than large wind or solar installations, and thus preserves more open land. That’s especially true of new modular designs under development. Some microreactors being built today are small enough to fit inside a shipping container.

Critics have long cited nuclear waste as a major obstacle to expanded nuclear power. Yet, in reality, the entire volume of spent fuel produced by the nation’s fission reactors since the 1950s could fit on a single football field stacked just 10 yards high. Nevertheless, on this point, too, there is good news. Several next-gen nuclear companies have launched programs to recycle spent fuel. Fuel used in traditional reactors retains most of its energy and is particularly well suited for repurposing into TRISO fuel. Recycling the fuel we already have would not only reduce nuclear waste; it would reduce America’s dependence on Russian uranium.

Following Hochul’s lead, a group of New England governors recently convened to discuss the region’s energy future and acknowledged that renewable energy alone is unlikely to meet rising electricity demand. As AI, electrification, and industrial reshoring place growing strain on the grid, nuclear power is returning to the center of America’s energy conversation.

Gov. Hochul is right to pursue expanded nuclear development in New York. The state’s near-term projects will rely on conventional light-water reactor technology, and those systems can still play an important role in meeting rising electricity demand. But as New York and other states consider the next generation of nuclear projects, policymakers should prioritize reactor designs that incorporate inherently safer fuel technologies like TRISO. Doing so could help ease public opposition while accelerating the deployment of reliable clean energy in the decades ahead.

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.