Duke Energy announced during its Q2 2026 earnings call that it will submit a subsequent license renewal application for the Brunswick nuclear plant before the end of the year. The move is widely anticipated and forms part of a broader strategy covering the company’s entire nuclear fleet — eleven operating reactors across North and South Carolina.
CEO Harry Sideris confirmed that Duke is evaluating both small modular reactors — SMRs — and Westinghouse’s AP1000 for its next generation of nuclear capacity. No final decision has been made. At Belews Creek in North Carolina, Duke has already filed an early site permit application for SMRs, covering six potential technologies, four of which fall under the modular reactor category and two of which are non-light-water designs. At the William States Lee III site in South Carolina, Duke holds a combined license for two AP1000 units, originally filed in 2008 and currently being updated with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brunswick, located in North Carolina, is one of the longest-running plants in the fleet. The subsequent license renewal would extend operations by an additional twenty years, following the path already taken for the Oconee plant — whose renewal has been approved by the NRC — and for Robinson, which generates approximately 759 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and has received $1.7 billion in upgrades. Duke’s stated goal is to secure renewals for all eleven reactors in its fleet.
On the SMR front, Duke is working with the Tennessee Valley Authority and GE Hitachi to accelerate deployment of Gen III+ technology, with a joint application submitted to the Department of Energy for federal funding. The plan calls for 600 megawatts of new nuclear capacity at Belews Creek to be operational by 2037, with the first SMR online by 2036. The early site permit is valid for up to twenty years, providing flexibility without locking Duke into an immediate construction commitment.
Sideris has been clear about his guiding principle: limiting financial risk for customers and shareholders. That criterion shapes the choice between the AP1000 and SMRs more than any technical consideration. AP1000 units offer greater capacity per installation — a meaningful advantage given the growing electricity demand in the Carolinas driven by data center expansion — but they require significant upfront capital. SMRs spread financial risk over time and allow investment to be scaled in line with demand growth.
If Duke stays on schedule, the Southeast will have new nuclear capacity online in the second half of the 2030s. The combination of license renewals for existing plants and parallel progress across multiple next-generation technologies reflects a coherent long-term strategy. In the meantime, the current fleet supplies roughly half of all electricity consumed by Duke’s customers in the Carolinas — with zero carbon emissions. It is a strong foundation to build on, whatever technology ultimately gets chosen.
