The New Nuclear Age: Why the World Is Rethinking Atomic Power – The commercial opportunities are far-reaching: as public and private sector investment flows into nuclear technology companies, investments will likewise be needed in the broader nuclear supply chain.
https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/new-nuclear-age-why-the-world-is-rethinking-atomic-power
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From the summary
Throughout history, the commercialization of new forms of energy has given rise to fossil fuel conglomerates and renewable energy enterprises, powered energy-intensive technologies, and created new global investment opportunities. As countries now race to secure the massive amounts of energy needed for leadership in artificial intelligence, nuclear energy is newly positioned to meet the moment.
When nuclear power initially rose to prominence during the Cold War, it became a defining feature of the era, symbolizing both existential threat and scientific triumph. In the decades after the Second World War, countries raced to develop civilian nuclear programs, lured by the promise of energy too cheap to meter. But after accidents like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, the momentum behind nuclear energy stalled. Public opposition surged, regulatory burdens grew, and innovation slowed. Today, nuclear energy makes up just 9% of the global electricity mix, down from approximately 18% in the late 1990s.
After decades of underinvestment, a convergence of generational technological breakthroughs, intensifying geopolitical competition, and the need for clean, dense, reliable power are positioning nuclear energy for a renaissance.
But the next nuclear age will look different from the last. While nuclear energy is typically associated with nuclear fission on account of its commercialization decades ago, there are actually two distinct forms of nuclear energy that exist, fission and fusion. Innovations in fission like small modular reactors (SMRs) are shaping what the revival of traditional nuclear fission could look like. Separately, the advent of fusion energy represents a technological breakthrough that could revolutionize how energy is generated, with the potential to disrupt global energy markets. Taken together, these innovations in fission and fusion could change not just how nuclear power is produced, but how nations compete, cooperate, and secure their energy futures.
>Why the World Is Rethinking Atomic Power
Meanwhile back in reality: [IEA: Renewables to cover 90% of the electricity demand increase forecast for 2025](https://www.pv-tech.org/renewables-cover-90-percent-electricity-demand-increase-forecast-2025/)
Goldmansachs: Please please please use something that has a vital commodity we can price-manipulate and that requires trillions in loans we can charge interest on. We just realised that spending $1 for the equivalent of a barrel of oil in solar panels will eliminate 99% of our revenue.
> the advent of fusion energy represents a technological breakthrough that could revolutionize how energy is generated, with the potential to disrupt global energy markets.
I don’t see it. As far as I can tell, at most optimistic, fusion power might be about 35% cheaper than fission power (low cost for fuel, essentially no waste to handle, less radioactivity so decommissioning should be cheaper, but all the stuff around it is about as expensive as for a fission reactor: coolant loops, steam turbine, spinning generator, power transmission. Fusion reactor controls are much more complex). By the time we have commercial fusion (if ever), renewables plus storage will be so cheap that fusion won’t be viable. Except maybe in aircraft carriers and spacecraft. [Maybe I’m wrong about fuel for fusion, see https://thequadreport.com/is-tritium-the-roadblock-to-fusion-energy/ ]
All of you think you are so smart. But there are extremely valuable materials that can only be made in fission reactors. And We have a severe shortage of those materials.
Plants are very expensive to build right now, but once companies get the first plants through the approval process, they can cut and paste those same specs to future plants.
Also What do you people think is going to happen when AI makes its first major groundbreaking discovery? Shit is going to hit the fan all around the world and electricity demand is going to skyrocket.
Nuclear energy provides crazy amounts of base loads that are needed and the regulations for the electricity supply from a nuclear plant to the grid are also way higher standards than any other form of power production, so its guaranteed to never go down except under plant maintenance.
This reminds me of how monorails are going to also take off soon. /S
Nuclear is too expensive to compete, but if we socialized more of the cost, some people could make private profit.
Anyone else hearing The Ink Spots in the background?
I feel like the real deal on nuclear, solar and electric are all the same.
The people in control run the world on oil. Free (cheaper, cleaner, too) energy isn’t worth the loss of control.
So let’s turn towards authoritarianism and suddenly it’s okay again.
The US nuclear supply chain is hanging by a thread. There were many suppliers during the US construction boom but after that dropped off, the supply chain dwindled as one would expect. It’s left mostly to large companies run by bean counters who are squeezing every penny out of what’s left. The supply chain is not prepared for the kind of growth everyone is talking about. In fact, if the growth is 20% of what is estimated, they are still not prepared. They will not prepare until the orders start coming. It will be too late then but leadership writes the checks and they won’t take the risk of staffing up beforehand. Nuclear experts don’t jump in to the seat on day one and just get to work. The learning curve is steep and training time is several years. Good luck everyone!
Nuclear Fission is WAY TOO expensive and always will be unless some ridiculous corners are cut endangering everyone.
Solar or wind plus energy storage is cheaper, more resilient, better for the environment, way faster to go online, and doesn’t have the risk of making a place inhabitable for thousands of years.
Fusion should not be called just nuclear to differentiate from fission.
Fusion is promising but still experimental.