#nuclear-regulation-reform

#nuclear-regulation-reform

"A more decentralized energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient. Countries that invested in the energy transition are weathering this crisis with less economic damage, as they boost energy security, resilience and competitiveness."

Fusion power seeks to use the energy released from the fusing of atoms to generate electricity. Humans have known how to fuse atoms for decades, from the hydrogen bomb to various fusion devices built in labs.

Our study suggests that living near a [nuclear power plant] may carry a measurable cancer risk - one that lessens with distance. We recommend that more studies be done that address the issue of NPPs and health impacts, particularly at a time when nuclear power is being promoted as a clean solution to climate change.

TerraPower is one of several companies racing to build smaller, more efficient reactors to augment electrical grids under strain from AI data centers. In a 2024 interview with The Verge, Bill Gates said that he also believes nuclear energy can help solve the climate crisis by using designs that minimize the problem in terms of their safety or fuel use or how they handle waste.

Four years ago, The Guardian published a landmark expose in climate journalism that detailed a coming "carbon bomb" of oil and gas projects. Damian Carrington and Matthew Taylor reported that the projects included plans to explore for, drill, frack, refine, and transport enough additional oil and gas to equal 10 years of China's planet-warming emissions.

The Pentagon and the Energy Department for the first time airlifted a small nuclear reactor from California to Utah, demonstrating what they say is U.S. potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use. The nearly 700-mile flight last weekend — which transported a 5-megawatt microreactor without nuclear fuel — highlights the Trump administration's drive to promote nuclear energy to help meet skyrocketing demand for power from artificial intelligence and data centers, as well for use by the military.

The DOE issued a Request for Information (RFI) on Wednesday, seeking responses from states that may be interested in hosting the campuses, which will operate a "full‑cycle nuclear ecosystem." In practice, this means these sites will be expected to provide facilities for atomic waste reprocessing and disposal, in addition to fuel fabrication and enrichment. They may also serve as locations for nuclear reactors and co‑located datacenters powered by them.

On Wednesday, Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority announced that it is halting the relicensing process for two reactors at the Hamaoka plant after revelations that the operator fabricated seismic hazard data. Japan has been slowly reactivating its extensive nuclear power plant collection after it was shut down following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The latest scandal is especially shocking, given that the Hamaoka plant is located on the coast near an active subduction fault-just as Fukushima Daiichi is.

Tokamak fusion reactors rely on heated plasma that is extremely densely packed inside a doughnut-shaped chamber. But researchers thought that plasma could not exceed a certain density - a boundary called the Greenwald limit - without becoming unstable. In a new study, scientists pushed beyond this limit to achieve densities 30% to 65% higher than those normally reached by EAST while keeping the plasma stable.

Inside, there are still textbooks lying on the desks, pencil cases are strewn across the floor; empty bento boxes that were never taken home. Along the corridor, shoes line the route the children took when they fled, some still in their indoor plimsolls, as their town was rocked by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 which went on to cause the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl.