Growing public opposition to data center construction is creating unexpected headwinds for nuclear energy stocks, particularly small modular reactor specialists.
According to recent polling by Gallup, around 70% of Americans opposed building data centers in their local areas, with nearly half indicating they were “strongly” opposed.
Gallup revealed that “half of opponents mention data centers’ excessive use of resources, including 18% each mentioning their use of water and energy.”
The data center industry itself remains in explosive growth mode, with McKinsey & Co. estimating that global spending on data centers could reach $7 trillion by 2030.
Oklo Inc. (NYSE: OKLO) and NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) are among the nuclear energy companies most exposed to any slowdown in data center expansion, given their focus on small modular reactors.
SMRs have attracted significant interest because they can theoretically be deployed in as little as two years, making them attractive to AI companies desperate for rapid power generation capacity.
On a per-megawatt basis, SMRs are more expensive than traditional nuclear power plants, meaning their premium pricing is only justified when speed of deployment is a critical priority.
If data center construction slows due to public resistance, AI companies may shift focus toward conventional long-term power solutions rather than paying the premium for SMR technology.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL, GOOG), the parent company of Google, is already planning to build three new conventional nuclear power plants in the U.S., each capable of producing at least 600 megawatts.
Natural gas is emerging as another competing energy source that could further undercut the near-term case for SMRs in the AI infrastructure buildout.
Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies is investing more aggressively in natural gas supplies to fuel its rockets and power its compute infrastructure, with SpaceX even planning to build its own natural gas pipeline.
If AI companies can satisfy near-term power demand with natural gas, that fuel could serve as a bridge until larger conventional nuclear plants come online at potentially lower operating costs than comparable SMRs.
The commercialization timeline for SMRs remains highly uncertain, with only two SMR systems ever built worldwide as of 2026.
NuScale has yet to commercialize its reactor designs, while Oklo does not yet have approval from U.S. regulators to even begin construction on its first facility.
Rising public opposition to data centers combined with growing natural gas interest could push the timeline for America’s first commercial SMR even further into the future, raising serious questions for investors in both OKLO and SMR.
