NEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Entergy ( ETR ) is

considering expanding its nuclear power generation capacity and

exploring new nuclear technologies, with the Louisiana electric

utility mulling building a new reactor in Mississippi and

upgrading existing plants, company executives said on Thursday.

The U.S. nuclear power industry is seeing a revival, after

decades of floundering, in light of rising electricity demand

and the vast energy needs of Big Tech's AI data centers.

Entergy ( ETR ), which provides electricity to parts of Arkansas,

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, is exploring several

operations for growing its roughly 5,000 megawatts (MW) of

nuclear capacity, executives with the company said on an

earnings call.

The company has an early site permit, issued by the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission in 2007, for a potential new reactor at

its Grand Gulf nuclear site in Mississippi.

Entergy ( ETR ) said it is also considering upgrading its

existing nuclear plants to increase total capacity by as much as

300 MW in a process known as uprating.

Those uprates would likely take place at Entergy's ( ETR )

Arkansas and Louisiana plants and not at its Grand Gulf plant,

executives said.

Longer-term, Entergy ( ETR ) is looking at helping to develop

new nuclear technologies.

The company also has a memorandum of understanding with

Holtec to evaluate the use of small modular reactors in

Entergy's ( ETR ) service.

The utility is in several industry working groups about

the development of those small reactors, which have never been

built in the United States. It is in separate state working

groups in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi about expanding

nuclear power.

(Reporting by Laila Kearneyd;)