Nuclear plants are cheap to operate, last decades longer than other power sources, and generate unrivaled volumes of zero-carbon electricity rain or shine on relatively tiny slivers of land. Yet despite growing demand, few investors are willing to take a risk on new atomic energy stations as theyre expensive and difficult to build. The United States hasnt built more than two from scratch in decades, and similar projects in Europe have gone billions of dollars over budget and taken years to complete.

Of the nearly five dozen reactors under construction worldwide, the majority are funded by the Chinese or Russian governments, with the Kremlin financing virtually every debut project underway in countries like Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey. Unlike buying Russian gas or Chinese-made solar panels, a nuclear power station is not a one-off purchase. Given the maintenance and fuel these plants require, the relationships forged between the buyer and the authoritarian exporter are expected to last as long as a century between construction, a typical lifetime of operation and final decommissioning.

A new campaign launched this week aims to rally support behind a potential alternative, HuffPost has learned: a global bank backed by the worlds biggest nuclear-powered democracies and dedicated to building nuclear power plants around the world.

The idea for the International Bank for Nuclear Infrastructure has been circulating for a few years. But a global team of 15 lawyers, financiers and regulatory experts officially incorporated a new U.S. nonprofit in hopes of persuading Congress to put up to $7 billion toward getting the new lender off the ground. Its the first of what the organization envisions as a globe-spanning network of nonprofits promoting IBNI, including an eventual headquarters in a neutral country such as Switzerland.