Atoms for Appalachia: Building state capacity for nuclear-enabled economic development
In 2025, the Atlantic Council’s Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative hosted the Atoms for Appalachia (A4A) workshop series in partnership with Breakthrough Energy Foundation. These workshops in Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia explored the role of nuclear energy in stimulating local and regional economic opportunities and meeting projected electricity demand growth.
This series expands on the 2024 A4A workshops that the Atlantic Council hosted in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The 2024 workshops explored how advanced nuclear technologies can advance economic security and energy security within those states by supporting a clean manufacturing base and creating durable career opportunities for host communities. Based on those 2024 discussions, in February 2025 the Atlantic Council launched a report, Atoms for Appalachia: The role of nuclear energy in economic development, that highlighted how an integrated, localized approach to nuclear development will enable economic opportunities for first-mover states as well as a pragmatic assessment of the challenges to advancing nuclear deployment.
This new report based on the 2025 workshops examines how Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia are considering opportunities associated with advanced nuclear energy innovation. Although the four states have different energy and industrial foundations, each is seeking to leverage nuclear development to expand reliable electricity supply, attract energy-intensive investment, strengthen domestic supply chains, and create durable employment opportunities. The report compares state-level strategies and recommends practical steps that state and regional stakeholders can take to convert growing interest in nuclear energy into broad economic gains.
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