Americans prefer nuclear plants over AI data centers nearby

Americans rank AI data centers below nuclear power plants as preferred neighbors, according to a new survey that inverts one of the most durable assumptions in public energy opinion. Nuclear has carried a toxic public image for decades, shaped by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. The fact that hyperscaler infrastructure now ranks worse speaks to how fast the backlash against data center siting has accelerated. The finding adds a precise comparative frame to what had previously been a diffuse NIMBY sentiment. Earlier Gallup data showed opposition percentages, but this dataset draws a direct head-to-head: given the choice, communities would absorb the historically feared technology over the new one. Essentially: (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta) are building gigawatt-class campuses across the US into a permitting and public-opinion environment that is actively hardening against them. - Survey respondents cited noise, water consumption, and grid strain as primary concerns about data centers, complaints that map directly onto hyperscaler operational footprints. - Nuclear plants, by contrast, have become associated with stable employment and low visible disruption once operational, shifting local calculus. - Zoning fights and state-level siting legislation are already pending in Virginia, Texas, and Georgia, the three largest US data center markets. The public opinion gap gives municipal and state governments political cover to impose stricter siting conditions, water-use caps, and grid-impact fees on hyperscaler builds through 2027.