Chilling US map shows areas most likely to be targeted in a ... In the west, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming have many marked targets on the map, including active nuclear power plants.

"Nuclear weapons and nuclear power started in the United States. We built a whole bunch of power plants. And by the mid-80s, we essentially stopped building them," he said.

The idea of floating nuclear plants isn't new. Reactors have been installed in submarines and ships since the USS Nautilus in 1954 and the first floating power plant dates back to 1967.

The Department of Energy announced a $1.5 billion loan to help a shuttered nuclear power plant reopen as the US tries to meet climate goals and meet rising electricity demand.

The heyday of nuclear plant construction in the US was in the 1970s and '80s. But the 1979 partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant soured public sentiment toward nuclear power.

New York is planning to build the first major new US nuclear power plant in more than 15 years, Gov. Kathy Hochul said — and it will have enough output to power 1 million homes.

New nuclear power plants in Georgia have helped flip the state's power mix so that electricity from clean energy sources has exceeded fossil fuel electricity output for the first time.