New wave of smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors sends US states racing to attract the industry

Associated Press ^ | 3/29/25 | Marc Levy

[Libloather]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the industry’s next generation as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and paving over regulatory obstacles.

Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the federal government’s regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a reliable, climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands from tech giants desperate to power their fast-growing artificial intelligence platforms.

The reactors could be operational as early as 2030, giving states a short runway to roll out the red carpet, and they face lingering public skepticism about safety and growing competition from renewables like wind and solar. Still, the reactors have high-level federal support, and utilities across the U.S. are working to incorporate the energy source into their portfolios.

Last year, 25 states passed legislation to support advanced nuclear energy and this year lawmakers have introduced over 200 bills supportive of nuclear energy, said Marc Nichol of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association whose members include power plant owners, universities and labor unions.

“We’ve seen states taking action at ever-increasing levels for the past few years now,” Nichol said in an interview.

Smaller, more flexible nuclear reactors

Smaller reactors are, in theory, faster to build and easier to site than conventional reactors. They could be factory-built from standard parts and are touted as flexible enough to plunk down for a single customer, like a data center or an industrial complex.

**SNIP**

Tech giants Amazon and Google are investing in nuclear reactors to get the power they need, as states compete with Big Tech, and each other, in a race for electricity.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "We just had to endure such a family's power and money grab for 4 years."

Many more years, when one tallies the Clintons, the Obamas as well as the Bidens, and quite a number of Democrats in the news then as now. ( I would include some RINOs in that list, by the way. )

[SaxxonWoods]

My relative who is a retired nuclear rocket fuel engineer says small nuke plants are the way to go for clean power.

[Bob434]

Quite true. The open brazeness of the bidens though, and the way the powe rs that be protected them, was astonishing.

[dagunk]

The U.S. remains without a long-term solution for storing radioactive waste,

********************************************

The French reprocess used fuel.

We don’t because of Carter.

[dagunk]

The measure of a civilization is how much power it can produce per person.

**************************************************

Indoor Plumbing.
Worked a job out in the middle of nowhere with porta-potties and bring water in 5-gallon jugs. Did it for 39 years. (Best job I ever had.)

So, Trust Me - “Indoor plumbing is Civilizations finest product”.

I can go with power is second.

[GingisK]

Oh, yeah, if a submarine can have one, why not a car?

[TalBlack]

The deepstate has figgered out that wind and solar ain’t gonna cut it.

[marktwain]

It makes you wonder if AI, somewhere, or everywhere, has convinced enough decision makers that small nuclear is the way to go.

[Ditto]

The U.S. remains without a long-term solution for storing radioactive waste,

We had a perfectly fine solution with Yucca Mountain out in Nevada until the ever corrupt Harry Reed and congressional Democrats killed it.

Until the corrupt Democrat party finds a way to make more money supporting nuclear power the they currently get from the enviro/commies for opposing it, all the new designs in the world don’t matter.

[Texas Fossil]

Bump.

The “wisdom” of AI is an invalid assumption.

It is fast and general. But the Truth is accurate, AI is not always the Truth.

[MSF BU]

Suburban creep? Not in the future of the United States unless the demographic situation reverses.

[MSF BU]

Yet the bitching will continue & the same idiots won’t be heard from when our aircraft carriers or subs visit their ports. Morons.

[MSF BU]

We can build nuclear subs and carriers but can’t manage to pour concrete? Tough to believe but if necessary we can import some from expertise from France.

[Texas Fossil]

Texas A&M Launches SMR ‘Energy Proving Ground’ with Selection of Four Nuclear Firms (Mar 4, 2025)

https://www.powermag.com/texas-am-launches-smr-energy-proving-ground-with-selection-of-four-nuclear-firms/

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I am near a development site 15 miles from me. It is not on the list in this above article, but it is a similar process design.

[fidelis]

Suburban creep? Not in the future of the United States unless the demographic situation reverses.

Maybe not where you live, but out here in the west, all the formerly wide open spaces are filling in fast with no lack of buyers, even in the desert SW with no sign of slowing down. If the economy ramps up, as we all hope it will do under President Trump, it'll only increase.

[lurk]

We should have been developing mini reactors 40 yrs ago. If we can stuff a small reactor into a submarine, we can put them anywhere.

[fidelis]

You should probably reread my post. The safety and reliability of these nuclear power sources has not really been tested on a long term, real world basis.

A nuclear meltdown or incident involving nuclear material, even a small one, is always a real danger. At a place I once worked, there was a small experimental nuclear reactor that had a meltdown. As a result, radioactive fallout was spread through the air and through groundwater to contaminate a large surrounding area. The cases of cancer in the surrounding community is abnormally high, and a lot of former employees came up with an inordinate number of cases of a particular type of leukemia. It's not something to take lightly.

[miniTAX]

“How long before you can shop for desktop nuclear reactors for your home on QVC and HSN?”

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Not feasible with current physics. For fission to occur, you need to reach critical mass. For controlled fission (for electricity, not for bombs), you need to “dilute” the fissile material even more, which requires even bigger critical mass. You end up with a huge core, more container like than desktop like.

Desktop nuclear is possible with nuclear decay, not nuclear fission. It exists decades ago using plutonium or polonium and used in a wide range of applications, from space exploration to medical implants but it produces small amounts of energy with a cost of Wh probably x1000 times that of conventional electricity.

[miniTAX]

“At a place I once worked, there was a small experimental nuclear reactor that had a meltdown. As a result, radioactive fallout was spread through the air and through groundwater to contaminate a large surrounding area. The cases of cancer in the surrounding community is abnormally high, and a lot of former employees came up with an inordinate number of cases of a particular type of leukemia.”

---

Which place??? Which company? What “inordinate number”? I’ve heard such scare stories so often from the gangGreen that I have zero trust in your vague claims without further infos.

[fidelis]

Which place??? Which company? What “inordinate number”? I’ve heard such scare stories so often from the gangGreen that I have zero trust in your vague claims without further infos.

I don't deal in "scare stories." I worked there and experienced this. I may be where I got my cancer from. Google Rocketdyne, Santa Susana Field Laboratory, California, nuclear incident.