Environmentalists are not on board with Hochul’s new nuclear plant

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Monday that the state’s public utility company would build a new nuclear power plant, the first in the United States in 15 years. She said it would deliver 1 gigawatt of clean energy to the state, which is struggling to meet its climate goals. But many environmentalists met the news with derision rather than celebration. 

The announcement is the state’s first major foray into nuclear since Hochul made revisiting the power source one of her priorities at the start of the year. Details were relatively scarce on Monday, but Hochul directed the New York Power Authority to build at least one new nuclear facility in upstate New York in order to strengthen the state’s grid with zero-emission energy production. With large load projects in the pipeline, like the new Micron chip fabrication factory set to come to Central New York and an expansion of AI data centers, New York officials are anticipating significant new strain on the power grid that will require reliable sources of electricity as fossil fuel plants get shut down. “So to power New York's future, we need three things: reliability, affordability and sustainability,” Hochul said. “And nuclear drives all three.” The presidents and CEOs of Tech:NYC and Micron, and a top official with GlobalFoundries, all praised the governor in a press release announcing the nuclear facility, which they said will be a boon for the tech industry in New York.

The governor acknowledged that some will oppose the move. “I know there's going to be critics, there already are critics of nuclear,” Hochul said. And those critics, mostly clean energy and environmental advocates, quickly came out to condemn the planned return to nuclear energy after the state invested greatly to shut down old nuclear reactors. 

“Governor Hochul’s nuclear gamble is a reckless distraction from the clean, affordable energy New Yorkers actually need,” said Alex Beauchamp, northern region director at Food & Water Watch. “Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, and wildly expensive – and this project will leave New Yorkers footing the bill while delaying urgently needed progress on renewables.” Mark Dunlea, chair of the Green Education and Legal Fund, similarly called the planned construction “an expensive, false climate solution.” And the Public Power NY Coalition, which has focused on getting NYPA to build 15 gigawatts of renewable energy, claimed that building a nuclear facility serves only to distract from wind and solar generation. “Hochul's decision to step in based on promises from Donald Trump shows just how unserious she is about New Yorker's energy bills and climate future,” the coalition said in a statement, referencing the president’s promise to streamline nuclear energy projects. 

Nuclear energy certainly comes with risks, between the threat of catastrophic meltdowns, radiation leaking into nearby communities and the waste disposal process. But the energy it produces is both zero-emission and steady, which are necessities according to the state’s independent grid operator. “Existing nuclear energy, in addition to being emissions-free, provides reliable, continuous, predictable supply,” reads the 2025 Power Trends report from the New York State Independent Systems Operator. “Wind and solar resources lack dispatchability… and are considered energy-limited because they rely on fluctuating weather conditions for their fuel.”

To the point of some critics, NYISO acknowledged that financial considerations could limit the feasibility of expanding nuclear power. The Power Trends report concluded that “the commercial availability of advanced nuclear designs is uncertain.” State Sen. Liz Krueger, who expressed wariness about new nuclear facilities, released a statement posing five questions about the state’s nuclear plan, including whether developing the plant would be “the most cost-effective use of our clean energy dollars.” 

According to the Power Trends report, nuclear power is currently responsible for producing 21% of the state’s energy. The vast, vast majority of zero-emission energy production comes from nuclear and hydroelectric sources, which combined make up 42% of the state’s power production – and that number used to be even higher before the decommissioning of the Indian Point Power Plant. Hochul referenced the plant, arguing that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to shut it down was a mistake, despite anxiety in nearby communities over the presence of a nuclear power plant. “But let's be honest, in doing that we turned off one quarter of New York City's power and it was almost all clean energy,” the governor said. “And overnight, without an alternative… more fossil fuels have been burned.”