Deployment Core

Case study · Infrastructure

The race to a nuclear gigawatt, measured in evidence rather than announcements

What: 18 companies racing to put new-design nuclear on the U.S. grid, ranked by what their megawatts have actually reached.
Stack: Static Next.js export on GitHub Pages; one TypeScript dataset with tests that enforce the band rules.
Status: LIVE
Dates: Published July 2026 · Updated August 2026
Links: Live site · Source code

Background

Which U.S. nuclear companies have actually generated a megawatt — and which are only holding announcements?

New-design nuclear is having a headline moment: tens of thousands of announced megawatts, criticality milestones, billion-dollar raises. Deployment Core cuts through that by scoring the race in evidence. Every tracked megawatt sits in exactly one of six bands — operational, nuclear construction, DOE-authorized build, under review, contracted, or announced-non-binding — the strongest state its documents support. As of early August 2026 the honest scoreboard read: 0 MWe operational, 440 MWe physically being built, and 40,075 MWe announced with no binding documents behind them.

The board covers 18 race entrants and 28 sourced projects, including all 11 initial Reactor Pilot Program reactors, with a fixed one-gigawatt line on every bar. For scale: the last new American nuclear capacity was Vogtle Units 3 and 4 — 2,234 MWe, finished in 2024. Everyone on this board is trying to do it smaller and faster.

A Look Inside

Each view shown on mobile and desktop — tap any image to open the live site.

The race board ranks 18 companies by the strongest state their megawatts have actually reached (mobile) — The race board ranks 18 companies by the strongest state their megawatts have actually reached — six evidence bands, a fixed one-gigawatt line on every track, and headline frames that are never summed.

The race board ranks 18 companies by the strongest state their megawatts have actually reached (desktop) — The race board ranks 18 companies by the strongest state their megawatts have actually reached — six evidence bands, a fixed one-gigawatt line on every track, and headline frames that are never summed.

The evidence ledger: every dated proof and capital event (mobile) — The evidence ledger: every dated proof and capital event, newest first, each labeled government-, company-, or press-reported and linked to the document behind it.

The evidence ledger: every dated proof and capital event (desktop) — The evidence ledger: every dated proof and capital event, newest first, each labeled government-, company-, or press-reported and linked to the document behind it.

How It Works

The site is a static Next.js export on GitHub Pages; the dataset is a single TypeScript file, and the editorial rules are enforced by tests rather than habits — every push re-verifies the data and the built pages before deploy.

One band per megawatt: capacity sits in the strongest state its evidence supports, a company-stated target never moves it, and binding and non-binding megawatts are never summed.
Criticality is not generation: 2026's reactor criticalities are all on the board — each contributing 0 MWe, because a zero-power critical assembly is not commercial power.
Sources outrank stories: every record needs a direct source link and a specific next gate, regulator and agency documents outrank company reporting, and press-only claims are labeled as such.
An evidence ledger, not a news feed: dated proof events and capital events stay in separate lanes, newest first, with an RSS feed.
Deeper cuts: per-company dossiers, a capital ledger that keeps closed, conditional, and appropriated support separate, a federal-action crosswalk, a supply-chain view, and a public methodology.

[View the Live Tracker] | [View the Code]

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