Peter Thiel

And so there was a way that nuclear was supposed to be the energy mode of the 21st century. And then, yeah, there are all these historical questions. Why did it get stopped? Why did we not go down that route? The standard explanation of why it stopped was that there were all these dangers. We had Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and then the Fukushima one in Japan, I think, 2011.

And you had these various accidents. My alternate theory on why nuclear energy really stopped is that it was sort of dystopian or even apocalyptic because it turned out to be very dual use. If you build nuclear power plants, it's only sort of one step away from building nuclear weapons. And it turned out to be a lot trickier to separate those two things out than it looked.

And you had these various accidents. My alternate theory on why nuclear energy really stopped is that it was sort of dystopian or even apocalyptic because it turned out to be very dual use. If you build nuclear power plants, it's only sort of one step away from building nuclear weapons. And it turned out to be a lot trickier to separate those two things out than it looked.

And you had these various accidents. My alternate theory on why nuclear energy really stopped is that it was sort of dystopian or even apocalyptic because it turned out to be very dual use. If you build nuclear power plants, it's only sort of one step away from building nuclear weapons. And it turned out to be a lot trickier to separate those two things out than it looked.

And I think the signature moment was 1974 or 75 when India gets the nuclear bomb. And the U.S., I believe, had transferred the nuclear reactor technology to India. We thought they couldn't weaponize it. And then it turned out it was pretty easy to weaponize. And then the...

And I think the signature moment was 1974 or 75 when India gets the nuclear bomb. And the U.S., I believe, had transferred the nuclear reactor technology to India. We thought they couldn't weaponize it. And then it turned out it was pretty easy to weaponize. And then the...

And I think the signature moment was 1974 or 75 when India gets the nuclear bomb. And the U.S., I believe, had transferred the nuclear reactor technology to India. We thought they couldn't weaponize it. And then it turned out it was pretty easy to weaponize. And then the...

And then sort of the geopolitical problem with nuclear power was you either, you know, you need a double standard where we have nuclear power in the U.S., but we don't allow other countries to have nuclear power because the U.S. gets to keep its nuclear weapons. We don't let a hundred other countries have nuclear weapons.

And then sort of the geopolitical problem with nuclear power was you either, you know, you need a double standard where we have nuclear power in the U.S., but we don't allow other countries to have nuclear power because the U.S. gets to keep its nuclear weapons. We don't let a hundred other countries have nuclear weapons.

And then sort of the geopolitical problem with nuclear power was you either, you know, you need a double standard where we have nuclear power in the U.S., but we don't allow other countries to have nuclear power because the U.S. gets to keep its nuclear weapons. We don't let a hundred other countries have nuclear weapons.

And that's an extreme double standard, probably a little bit hard to justify, right? Or you need some kind of really effective global governance where you have a one-world government that regulates all this stuff, which doesn't sound that good either.

And that's an extreme double standard, probably a little bit hard to justify, right? Or you need some kind of really effective global governance where you have a one-world government that regulates all this stuff, which doesn't sound that good either.

And that's an extreme double standard, probably a little bit hard to justify, right? Or you need some kind of really effective global governance where you have a one-world government that regulates all this stuff, which doesn't sound that good either.

And then sort of the compromise was just to regulate it so much that maybe the nuclear plants got grandfathered in, but it became too expensive to build new ones. Like even China, which is the country where they're building the most nuclear power plants, they built way less than people expected a decade ago because, you know, they don't trust their own designs.

And then sort of the compromise was just to regulate it so much that maybe the nuclear plants got grandfathered in, but it became too expensive to build new ones. Like even China, which is the country where they're building the most nuclear power plants, they built way less than people expected a decade ago because, you know, they don't trust their own designs.

And then sort of the compromise was just to regulate it so much that maybe the nuclear plants got grandfathered in, but it became too expensive to build new ones. Like even China, which is the country where they're building the most nuclear power plants, they built way less than people expected a decade ago because, you know, they don't trust their own designs.

And so they have to copy the over-safety, over-protected designs from the West and the nuclear plants. Nuclear power costs too much money. It's cheaper to do coal. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not going to get the numbers exactly right, but if you look at what percent of Chinese electricity was nuclear, it wasn't that high. It was like maybe 4 or 5 percent in 2013, 2014.

And so they have to copy the over-safety, over-protected designs from the West and the nuclear plants. Nuclear power costs too much money. It's cheaper to do coal. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not going to get the numbers exactly right, but if you look at what percent of Chinese electricity was nuclear, it wasn't that high. It was like maybe 4 or 5 percent in 2013, 2014.

And so they have to copy the over-safety, over-protected designs from the West and the nuclear plants. Nuclear power costs too much money. It's cheaper to do coal. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not going to get the numbers exactly right, but if you look at what percent of Chinese electricity was nuclear, it wasn't that high. It was like maybe 4 or 5 percent in 2013, 2014.

And the percent hasn't gone up in 10 years because, you know, they've maybe doubled the amount of electricity they use and maybe they doubled the nuclear. But the relative percentage is still high. It's still a pretty small part of the mix because it's just more expensive when you have these over-safety designed reactors.