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The Department of Energy is seeking states interested in becoming home to “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses,” sites that will support what the administration calls “the next American nuclear renaissance” (CNBC).

What’s going on: The DOE issued a request for information on Wednesday, looking for hosts to “support activities across the nuclear fuel lifecycle—including recycling used fuel.”

• The U.S. does not currently do any commercial-scale recycling of uranium, which most nuclear reactors use as fuel.
• “Ultimately, one of the proposed campuses could house the entire fuel cycle from enrichment all the way to recycling. The sites could also potentially have advanced reactors, power generation and co-located data centers, since it’s easier to do everything under one roof rather than having to transport fuel.”

Why it’s happening: The large (and growing) appetite of the data center industry for power is fueling renewed interest in nuclear energy.

• Nuclear now accounts for about 21% of U.S. power, but the administration has made increasing nuclear energy capacity a cornerstone of its energy policy, aiming to boost it from 100 gigawatts to 400 gigawatts by 2050 (World Nuclear News).
• President Trump also signed executive orders last spring to speed up the deployment of nuclear reactors by slashing regulations.

Other moves: The DOE recently announced $2.7 billion in funding to bolster U.S. nuclear enrichment operations, and Bethesda, Maryland–based Centrus Energy Corp. said earlier this month it will get $900 million from the agency to expand existing U.S. enrichment facilities.