Sep 23, 2026 · 54 min · 11 segments
In the past few years, something surprising has happened in American energy policy: States and utilities have started trying to build new nuclear plants. A new kind of company — the nuclear developer…
Robinson MeyerHost
It seems like another kind of advantage of nuclear at this moment is that it is an energy technology that both parties can agree on.
The current administration seems to support nuclear for a number of reasons, including it's resilient, kind of a classic type of environmentalist doesn't like it, which is a benefit in some quarters.
I don't know if it was just voodoo fear and panic of celebrities who were scared of nuclear but had no idea what they were talking about.
I don't know if it was environmental, but my goodness, maybe the worst industrial policy that's ever happened in this country.
I might argue it could end up being one of the worst policy decisions in the history of this country was not continuing to build nuclear.
The fact that we have a 20 percent of our grid comes from nuclear power and the fact that we've only built two reactors in 30 years, we're living off of our grandparents who built one fifth of our grid.
and we shut that down, my goodness, had we kept building and the amount of abundant power we would have and how low cost it would have been, I would argue probably the worst.
But Abundant, reliable, low-cost power enables civilizations since the dawn of fire.
And I would argue this will be the singularly most critical issue that this country's had that has allowed China to now beat us and potentially become the largest economy and certainly the largest energy producer in the world.
So I think one of the interesting things about this moment is that there's bipartisan interest in nuclear.
And one of those big programs has been this effort from the energy department to subsidize, help organize and back the creation of 10 new reactors across the country.
How is that effort going to the degree you can speak about it and kind of what needs to happen from on the government side to build nuclear at, let's just say, the scale that the country was doing it in the 1980s and late 1970s? I
It seems like another kind of advantage of nuclear at this moment is that it is an energy technology that both parties can agree on.
The current administration seems to support nuclear for a number of reasons, including it's resilient, kind of a classic type of environmentalist doesn't like it, which is a benefit in some quarters.
I don't know if it was just voodoo fear and panic of celebrities who were scared of nuclear but had no idea what they were talking about.
I don't know if it was environmental, but my goodness, maybe the worst industrial policy that's ever happened in this country.
I might argue it could end up being one of the worst policy decisions in the history of this country was not continuing to build nuclear.
The fact that we have a 20 percent of our grid comes from nuclear power and the fact that we've only built two reactors in 30 years, we're living off of our grandparents who built one fifth of our grid.
and we shut that down, my goodness, had we kept building and the amount of abundant power we would have and how low cost it would have been, I would argue probably the worst.
But Abundant, reliable, low-cost power enables civilizations since the dawn of fire.
And I would argue this will be the singularly most critical issue that this country's had that has allowed China to now beat us and potentially become the largest economy and certainly the largest energy producer in the world.
So I think one of the interesting things about this moment is that there's bipartisan interest in nuclear.
And one of those big programs has been this effort from the energy department to subsidize, help organize and back the creation of 10 new reactors across the country.
How is that effort going to the degree you can speak about it and kind of what needs to happen from on the government side to build nuclear at, let's just say, the scale that the country was doing it in the 1980s and late 1970s? I
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