Full Title: New Nuclear Responsibility
Author(s): John Pendleton, Ariel (Eli) Levite, and Toby Dalton
Publisher(s): Carnegie Endowment for international Peace
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
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Description (excerpt):
A recent flurry of activity around nuclear energy—driven by an upsurge of interest and incipient investment from technology companies anxious to find enough power for AI—points toward a potential renaissance, both in the United States and around the world. We’ve been here before, of course: nuclear power has experienced similar periods of optimism since its inception in the 1950s. However, especially in the United States, such hopes have been repeatedly crushed under the weight of construction delays and cost overruns, as well as persistent, inherent problems such as safety concerns, long-lived toxic waste, and environmental damages. Evaluating the potential of today’s putative nuclear renaissance thus requires a critical look at what has changed, what hasn’t, and what would be required to avoid the pitfalls that turned prior periods of nuclear boom to bust.