US / UK “a golden age of nuclear”
Posted: 10th October 2025
Article by Paul Dorfman, Amory Lovins, Mark Z, Jacobson and Steve Thomas:
UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s new partnership with US president Donald
Trump ushers in “a golden age of nuclear”. But awkward facts intrude.
The main problem is that last year, the world added a record 582GW of
renewable energy capacity. That’s over 91% of all new power – with
nuclear nowhere. In fact, each year, nuclear adds as much net global power
capacity as renewables add every two days. The reason is simple. Nuclear
costs are huge and rising and significant delays are the norm. The result
is that nuclear power faces the same fundamental challenges as fossil fuels
– uncompetitive costs, stranded assets, a polluting legacy and unrivaled
competition from renewables.Now comes another vision – powering a brave
new world of artificial intelligence (AI). Yet the International Energy
Agency expects data centers to cause a 10th of global electricity demand
growth to 2030, doubling their share of usage to just 3%. So AI won’t eat
the grid. Meanwhile, IEA forecasts renewables will power data-center growth
10-20 times over, with Bloomberg NEF predicting a 100-fold renewables
expansion. Reporting directly to the PM, the new UK Nuclear Regulatory
Taskforce says the regulation of civil and defence nuclear “has become
increasingly complex and bureaucratic, leading to huge delays and
ballooning costs, often for marginal benefit”. The problem is there’s
no evidence to support this. In fact, the evidence suggests otherwise. EDF
insists they had to “substantially adapt the reactor design at Hinkley
Point C to satisfy British regulations – requiring 7,000 changes, adding
35% more steel and 25% more concrete”. UK Office for Nuclear Regulation,
normally slow to anger, tersely replied to EDF the next day that “we do
not recognise our regulatory requirements as being the principal factor in
these increases”.
New Civil Engineer 7th Oct 2025
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/opinion/a-golden-age-of-nuclear-07-10-2025/