The nuclear industry is racing to launch advanced small reactors by the early 2030s, aiming to meet the deep-pocketed technology sector’s growing need for electricity to fuel artificial intelligence.
The world has relied largely on the same pressurized-water reactor technology for the past 70 years, but those plants have proven incredibly expensive to build in the U.S. in the 21st century.
The first new nuclear plant completed in decades, reactors 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, infamously cost about $18 billion more than expected and opened seven years behind schedule. Each of those reactors can generate 1,114 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than 800,000 homes.
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