Over the past decade or so, the once- sleepy nuclear sector has become a hive of activity. Venture capital drove innovative reactor designs promising lower risk. The need for low-carbon energy eroded environmental opposition. Electrification and artificial intelligence boosted energy demand, and the geopolitical weaponization of energy put a premium on domestic generation. As a
Almost since the first nuclear power plant started generating electricity in the 1950s, critics have pointed out the difficulty of safely disposing of highly radioactive spent fuel. In those days, radiation was among the few carcinogens that were recognized and could be measured easily. Cold-war anxieties amplified public fear of nuclear technologies and radiation. As
Few scientific phenomena have been associated with such an eerie blend of menace and promise as nuclear fission. Within seven years of the discovery of fission, in which a heavy atomic nucleus is split into smaller fragments to release energy, the world watched as the United States used it to destroy two Japanese cities. Less
Imagine a nuclear reactor that is small enough to be transported on an aeroplane or inside a shipping container, and loaded with ten years’ worth of fuel. This kind of microreactor, say its proponents, could be shipped straight from factories to remote areas where electricity is expensive, such as rural Alaska and remote mining sites,
OUTLOOK | 26 August 2026 Whether the billions of dollars of investment will lead to an inexhaustible source of clean electrical power is not yet known. By Neil Savage Engineers assemble toroidal field magnets at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a fusion-power company in Massachusetts. Credit: Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg via Getty Engineers assemble toroidal field magnets at Commonwealth
The amount of gas-fired power in development for data centers in the US has nearly doubled in less than a year, new research released Tuesday shows. The findings illustrate just how heavily tech companies are relying on building private fossil fuel plants to power data centers—and how fast artificial intelligence’s energy demand has grown. Global