Are Trump and AI driving a nuclear power boom?
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey short wavers, Regina Barber here. And you may not have realized it, but this is the U.S. 's summer of nuclear.
The reactor is critical. First advanced reactor to ever make power by startup. We turned on a brand new advanced reactor.
We made neutrons and we sustained a fission chain reaction.
So as part of Tech Camp, we're looking at the technological frontier for innovations that could change everything. And over the past few months, small nuclear reactors have been starting up at sites around the country. Right, Jeff?
Yeah, that's right. And more are expected to come online soon, in part because of everybody's favorite topic, artificial intelligence. It's thanks to a program that President Trump launched a little over a year ago.
I've signed an order directing an approval of many new nuclear reactors.
But the speed at which these new reactors are getting built has some people really worried.
So today on the show, NPR correspondent Jeff Brumfield is tracking Trump's nuclear race. And we're going to talk about it.
What are the risks? What could be the benefits? And is it actually going to lead to a new nuclear age?
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So Jeff, I guess the first thing to talk about is why the U.S. needs more nuclear power. What's the thinking here?
You know, it comes back to what we talk about a lot these days, which is artificial intelligence. Because of AI, US energy demand is going to skyrocket by about 130% between now and 2030, which is just four years. I mean, not very long.
It's huge.
And, you know, the big tech firms, they have these climate commitments. And so they need more juice, but they don't want to be burning oil or gas. And so there's all sorts of talk around nuclear, restarting old nuclear plants and building new nuclear plants. And that's where this whole nuclear race comes in.
But what makes this current nuclear revival different?
So what's happening this time around is people are thinking smaller, interestingly enough. They're thinking of building these small experimental nuclear reactors, many designs that are either completely new or haven't been tried in decades. And these are reactors that can be built with venture capital. They have some technical advantages that we haven't seen before. They can operate at higher temperatures, less likely to melt down. That's a big one. Yeah, that's big in the nuclear industry. And so the sort of flow of this VC money combined with the new tech is getting everyone very excited. And of course, the goal is to maybe build lots of these little reactors at data centers so you don't need to take power off the grid.
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