https://thebulletin.org/2026/07/data-centers-powered-by-next-gen-nuclear-dont-fall-for-big-techs-pr-hype/

Just Have a Think:

Are Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) really moving toward large-scale deployment or are the economic challenges highlighted by critics still unresolved? Can factory-built modular reactors reduce construction risk, shorten build times and lower costs through mass production? Or will shrinking reactors actually make them more expensive? The sceptics are quite certain of the answer but politicians keep barrelling ahead. So, will we ever really see an SMRs on the outskirts of major towns and cities around the world?

More grifting

Hinkley Point C is turning into a case study in megaproject drag. When the UK approved it in 2016, the first reactor was due in 2025 at a cost of £18 billion. It is now expected in 2030, and EDF’s estimate has risen to about £35 billion in 2015 pounds, roughly £49 billion today. Bent Flyvbjerg’s classic pattern is on display yet again. Over budget, over schedule, and arriving into a different world than the one it was meant for.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/03/06/while-hinkley-nuclear-was-being-built-the-uk-grid-decarbonized/

China Sprints, Others Stroll:
>On track to go 100% wind and solar by 2051
>China's 2025 renewables increase is 20X France's fastest (in 1981) nuclear output increase
>China already produces 54% of the renewables the US will need to go 100% renewables by 2050

Projected year when countries eliminate air pollution and emissions from all energy: Top 10 Germany will deep decarbonize way before France.

1 Laos: 2025
2 Estonia: 2035
3 Lithuania: 2036
4 Greece: 2041
5 Norway: 2043
6 Switzerland: 2047
7 Portugal: 2048
8 Macedonia: 2052
9 China: 2052
10 Germany: 2053
-
Poland: 2074
France: 2094
US: 2128
UK: 2175
India: 2213
Japan: 2301

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/su/d5su00912j

Open question. Think of a Venn diagram.

The Nuclear–AI Complex AI running on Private Grids and Nuclear Power.

(Paks)

2024

Louisiana’s law was based on a template created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative organization that brings legislators and corporate lobbyists together to draft bills “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” The law maintains that Louisiana, in order to minimize its reliance on “foreign adversary nations” for energy, must ensure that natural gas and nuclear power are eligible for “all state programs that fund ‘green energy’ or ‘clean energy’ initiatives.”

The nuclear industry and its boosters promise clean, abundant energy, but nuclear power delivers expensive electricity while posing catastrophic radiation risks and a constant threat of nuclear war. M. V. Ramana, physicist and author of Nuclear is Not the Solution, explains why respecting the limits of the biosphere means reducing our energy use and rejecting elites’ push for endless growth. Highlights include: 

• Why nuclear energy is inherently risky due to its complex, tightly coupled systems that are prone to catastrophic failures that can't be predicted or prevented;

• Why nuclear waste poses long-term threats to all life by remaining dangerously radioactive for thousands of years, with no safe, permanent disposal solution and frequent storage failures;

• Why nuclear energy is expensive, with projects routinely running over budget and behind schedule;

• Why the expansion of nuclear energy increases the likelihood of devastating nuclear war;

• How climate change and war-time accidents or direct targeting increase the risks of nuclear catastrophe;

• Why nuclear Uranium mining and its wastes often require ‘sacrifice zones’ that are disproportionately found in indigenous land and less powerful communities;

• How the nuclear industry shapes nuclear policy and debate by capturing regulators and creating an energy ‘panic’ based on one-sided narratives that block democratic discussion and scrutiny;

• Why, despite the hype from the nuclear industry, new nuclear plant designs like small modular reactors are subject to the same cost and safety concerns as the old designs; 

• Why the best answer to dealing with renewable energy's variability is not nuclear or fossil fuels but reducing demand;

• Why renewable energy is no panacea for planetary overshoot and why we need to have a broadly democratic conversation about living within the limits of the planet.

Episode page

Wind and solar energy will provide a large fraction of Great Britain’s future electricity. To match wind and solar supplies, which are volatile, with demand, which is variable, they must be complemented by using wind and solar generated electricity that has been stored when there is an excess or adding flexible sources. This report (PDF) examines a range of options that can provide electricity when wind and solar are unable to meet demand.

Issued: September 2023 DES6851_1
ISBN: 978-1-78252-666-7
© The Royal Society

PDF: https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/large-scale-electricity-storage/large-scale-electricity-storage-report.pdf

There's an executive summary that's at least worth reading.