Why Utilities Struggle with Big Nuclear Projects

Juliann Edwards is Chief Development Officer at The Nuclear Company. The United States has 93 operating nuclear reactors providing about 20% of the nation’s electricity. After decades without new builds, Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia finally came online—despite cost overruns and delays that nearly derailed the project. Meanwhile, China has dozens of reactors under construction and is on pace to surpass the U.S. as the world’s nuclear leader by 2030.

At the same time, an energy-demand gap—driven by AI data centers, reshoring of manufacturing, and widespread electrification—has put nuclear back in the conversation. Hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are scrambling for clean, reliable baseload power.

The Nuclear Company believes it can crack what’s held nuclear back in America. Rather than inventing new reactor designs, they’re using proven models like the AP1000 and targeting “the other 88%” of costs—construction, financing, and project management. Their approach is fleet-scale deployment: building multiple reactors at once to drive down costs through repetition and shared learning. They’re also partnering with Palantir to build an AI-powered operating system to orchestrate these projects.

Beyond her role at The Nuclear Company, Juliann chairs U.S. Women in Nuclear. With 15 years in the industry—from steel commodities to the 2000s nuclear renaissance and the decommissioning wave—she’s seen the cycles and why today’s interest feels different.

MCJ is a multiple-time investor in The Nuclear Company through our venture funds.

Episode recorded on Aug 7, 2025 (Published on Oct 7, 2025)

In this episode, we cover: 

• [2:57] Juliann’s background and path to nuclear
• [05:30] Women in Nuclear’s mission and growth
• [06:38] Lessons from a six‑state nuclear bus tour
• [08:22] NIMBY sentiment shifting toward nuclear acceptance
• [10:25] U.S. build history and why it stalled
• [18:06] What went wrong and right at Vogtle
• [24:05] Nuclear reactor ~12% of cost; 88% is everything else
• [25:42] Workforce gaps and training pipelines
• [26:40] An overview of nuclear project types
• [32:59] Timelines: restarts soon; new builds in years
• [34:42] TNC’s executive makeup
• [37:40] The role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• [40:35] Palantir and TNC’s newly announced partnership
• [48:35] Solving the nuclear waste problem
• [50:30] Juliann’s predictions for the future of nuclear
• [53:10] Hyperscalers’ evolving nuclear appetite

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant