New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte signed an executive order Thursday directing the state Department of Energy to develop a “nuclear roadmap” for the state, formalizing a commitment to advanced nuclear energy she first outlined in her February State of the State address.
The order instructs the Department of Energy to identify a path toward implementing “advanced nuclear electric generation” in New Hampshire. That term typically refers to emerging technologies such as small modular reactors, which compress nuclear generation into a smaller physical footprint than traditional plants. The department must also pinpoint obstacles to nuclear development and propose strategies for removing them.
“Increased use of nuclear generation could significantly reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions while providing reliable household power,” the order states.
Ayotte’s push for new nuclear comes as New Hampshire residents continue to face some of the highest energy costs in the region. Her order argues that expanding nuclear capacity on the regional grid would lower rates more effectively than increasing investment in renewable energy sources. Her office did not respond to a request for the research supporting that claim before publication.
That position puts Ayotte at odds with a portion of the clean energy community. Some advocates argue that wind, solar, and battery storage represent a faster and cheaper path to increasing local generation, pointing to technologies already deployed at scale across the country. The debate reflects a broader national tension over which technologies should anchor the clean energy transition.
New Hampshire is not starting from scratch on nuclear. Seabrook Station already supplies more than half of the electricity generated in the state, and the state currently produces more power than it consumes. Ayotte frames expanded nuclear capacity as a natural extension of that existing infrastructure rather than a departure from it.
The executive order also takes aim at one of nuclear power’s most persistent vulnerabilities: cost. The Department of Energy must study ways to protect ratepayers from delays and cost overruns, problems that have defined nuclear construction for decades. Seabrook Station itself became a cautionary tale, plagued by budget explosions and construction delays during its development. The order’s inclusion of ratepayer protections signals that Ayotte’s administration is aware of that history, even as it advocates for more nuclear construction.
There is a practical complication at the center of Ayotte’s vision. Advanced nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, are not yet commercially available in the United States. Test reactors are currently under construction in other states, but experts say widespread deployment remains years away. The executive order is, in effect, charting a course toward a technology that does not yet exist at commercial scale, which raises legitimate questions about timeline and feasibility.
The order also directs the department to investigate whether nuclear developers would be interested in partnering with utilities to build generation capacity in New Hampshire. That provision may connect to legislation currently before the state Legislature that would allow utilities to own certain nuclear power generators, a model that would shift financial risk in ways that could affect ratepayers directly.
The Department of Energy must deliver a preliminary roadmap within six months and a final report within two years. Those deadlines give the administration concrete milestones to meet, but they also mean the hard policy work of translating Ayotte’s enthusiasm into actual regulatory and financing frameworks will unfold largely outside public view.
What the executive order does not provide is clarity on cost projections, specific sites, or how the administration plans to navigate federal permitting requirements for new nuclear facilities. Those details matter enormously for evaluating whether Ayotte’s nuclear ambitions are realistic or aspirational.
For now, the order represents a political signal as much as a governing directive. Ayotte is staking her energy agenda on a technology that carries both genuine promise and serious unresolved questions. Whether New Hampshire’s Department of Energy can produce a roadmap credible enough to survive contact with economic reality will be a test of the administration’s ability to match its ambitions with the hard work of implementation.