In Japan, a nuclear watchdog halted a reactor from spinning up after deciding it was unsafe.
Nuclear solutions can provide a lot of clean energy, but its also dangerous.
Japan has a lot of experience with the particular dangers of nuclear power plants.
The Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant.© Hirorinmasa via Wikimedia Commons.
In 2011 a power plant in Fukushima melted down following an earthquake.
During the recovery process, Japan passed sweeping regulatory changes to the industry.
The U.S. is also planning to use nuclear energy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Apress releasefrom the Department of Energy (DoE) this week outlined a rough plan to that end.
According to the DoEs estimates, nuclear energy is the largest source of clean power in the United States.
The number is variable depending on the design involved, but a typical nuclear reactorproduces around 1 gigawattof electricity.
Reaching 200 would mean a whole lot of new nuclear reactors.
Big tech is all in to help.
Microsoft is paying millions to spin up Three Mile Island.
All three companies are investing in different kinds of new reactors, such as small modular ones.
That number could grow to 95 GW if you look at sites that can potentially host small modular reactors.
The DoE has also floated the idea of converting fossil fuel-burning coal plants intonuclear energy sites.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
For now, the facility will use AI to comply with regulations.
