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The Pros and Cons
of Nuclear Energy

Don't let the PROS CON you!

Page Updated:
June 15, 2025

• Nuclear Industry News

Nuclear News Stories

Read the latest news stories on nuclear power

What went right - and what went WRONG?

Click now for that section on this page.

• Nuclear Plant
Accident Timeline

Events to Make You
Distrust Nuclear Power:

Read the BBC account of the varous nuclear accidents beginning in 1957.

Click now to learn more.

• • World Bank Ends Its Ban on Funding Nuclear Power Projects

  The Decision, a Major Reversal, Could Help Poorer Nations Industrialize, Cut Planet-Warming Emissions and More
  
  

  June 11, 2025 -The world’s largest and most influential development bank said on Wednesday it would lift its longstanding ban on funding nuclear power projects.

  The decision by the board of the World Bank could have profound implications for the ability of developing countries to industrialize without burning planet-warming fuels such as coal and oil.

• • Plutonium Pit Productions

  The Risks and Costs of US Plans to Build New Nuclear Weapons
  
  {Union of Concerned Scientists}
  
  

  May 28, 2025 -Producing new pits would not only be expensive, time consuming, and logistically challenging, but is also technically unnecessary and politically destabilizing. It would actually decrease national security by encouraging a new arms race. In addition, a rushed program will likely increase health risks to workers and communities.

  Science shows we can count on the reliability of existing plutonium pits. There are other ways to improve security without the risks and costs of producing new pits.

• • Three Tonnes of Uranium Legally Dumped
  in Protected English Estuary in Nine Years

  Expert Raises Concerns Over Quantities Allowed To Be Discharged From Nuclear Fuel Factory Near Preston
  
  

  May 22, 2025 -The Environment Agency has allowed a firm to dump three tonnes of uranium into one of England’s most protected sites over the past nine years, it can be revealed, with experts sounding alarm over the potential environmental impact of these discharges.

  Documents obtained by the Guardian and the Ends Report through freedom of information requests show that a nuclear fuel factory near Preston discharged large quantities of uranium – legally, under its environmental permit conditions – into the River Ribble between 2015 and 2024.

• • The Tennessee Valley Authority
  Is Taking a Big Swing on Small Nuclear

  The Nation’s Largest Public Power Provider Just Applied to Build a Small Modular Reactor
  
  {HEATMAP}
  
  

  May 16, 2025 -Can the nuclear renaissance be publicly owned? And will the Trump administration let it?

  That’s the question facing the Tennessee Valley Authority as it continues its long-gestating project to build a small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, to complement its already sizable nuclear fleet.

• • Draft Executive Orders Aim to Speed Construction of Nuclear Plants

  The Potential Actions Could Include Overhauling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Leaning on the U.S. Military to Deploy New Reactors
  
  

  May 9, 2025 -The Trump administration is considering several executive orders aimed at speeding up the construction of nuclear power plants to help meet rising electricity demand, according to drafts reviewed by The New York Times.

  The draft orders say the United States has fallen behind China in expanding nuclear power and call for a “wholesale revision” of federal safety regulations to make it easier to build new plants.

• • China Amps Up Nuclear Ambitions With
  10 New Reactor Approvals for Fourth Straight Year

  China’s Third-Generation Hualong One Reactors Will Be Among Those Built in Some Coastal Provinces, and Each Can Meet the Energy Demands of 1 Million People
  
  {myNews}
  
  

  Apr. 18, 2025 -China’s State Council has approved 10 new nuclear reactors across five sites, ramping up the development of the nation’s rapidly expanding nuclear power industry with a combined investment of more than 200 billion yuan (US$27.4 billion).

  The year’s first approval of new nuclear reactors came during a State Council meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang on Sunday. They will be built in the coastal provinces of Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shandong and Fujian, according to The Paper, a state-run publication.

• • This Tiny Nuclear Battery Could
  Last for Thousands of Years Without Charging

  The Radiocarbon Battery is Supposed to Be Safe For Everyday Operations
  
  

  Mar. 27, 2025 -Lithium-ion batteries power your smartphone, electric vehicle, and wireless earbuds. However, even the best lithium-ion batteries degrade, forcing us into a never-ending cycle of charging and replacing. But what if a single battery could outlast its device — or even its user?

  Scientists are now turning to an unlikely source to power mobile devices: nuclear energy. Not the kind that fuels reactors, but a far smaller, safer version that could fit inside everyday gadgets.

• • Will Texas Become ‘the Epicenter
  of a National Nuclear Renaissance’?

  A New Bill Would Create a Taxpayer-Funded Incentive Program of at Least $2 Billion for Nuclear Power Plants
  
  

  Mar. 24, 2025 -Texas lawmakers are considering a bill to resuscitate the state’s nuclear power industry through a taxpayer-funded incentives program. State Rep. Cody Harris, a Republican from Palestine in East Texas, proposed allocating $2 billion toward a fund to create the Texas Advanced Nuclear Deployment Office.

  The bill proposes using public dollars to help fund nuclear construction, provide grants for reactors and fund development research. HB 14 would also create a state coordinator to assist in the state and federal permitting processes.

• • The Climate Fix: Nuclear Waste Finds Its Forever Home

  Finland May Soon Become the First Country to Develop a Permanent Way to Store Spent Nuclear Fuel By Burying It In Tunnels Deep Underground
  
  

  Mar. 14, 2025 -For decades, the U.S. government has been staring down a growing problem: It doesn’t have a permanent site to dispose of used nuclear fuel.

  Finland, however, is about to be the first country that does.

• • Supreme Court Wrestles with Dispute
  Over Nuclear Waste Storage in Texas

  The Case Focuses on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Approval of a Project to Store Spent Nuclear Fuel at a Remote Site in Southwestern Texas
  
  {NBC NEWS}
  
  

  Mar. 5, 2025 - The shadow of the long-stalled proposed nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, loomed over Supreme Court proceedings Wednesday as the justices weighed a dispute over the federal government's decision to approve a temporary storage site in Texas.

  The nine justices heard oral arguments on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission correctly allowed a company called Interim Storage Partners to store spent nuclear fuel in Andrews County, Texas, for up to 40 years.

• • France Fusion Reactor Breaks Record for Plasma Duration

  1,337 Seconds: That Was How Long a Tokamak was Able to Maintain Plasma
  
  

  Feb. 21, 2025 -Researchers in France have set an impressive new record. For 22 breathtaking minutes, blazing-hot plasma swirled inside the WEST tokamak, setting a new world record for plasma duration. A tokamak is one of the most promising designs for a fusion reactor: a doughnut-shaped device that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine and control superheated plasma reactions.

  This achievement, announced by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), marks a major step forward in nuclear fusion research, surpassing the previous record by 25%.

• • Fusion Energy Innovation

  US D.O.E. Invests
  $107 Million in the Projects
  
  {SPACE DAILY}
  
  

  Jan. 17, 2025 -The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated $107 million to support six projects under its Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives. This initiative, alongside progress in the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, aims to fast-track the development of commercial fusion energy. Both programs are managed by the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) division of the DOE's Office of Science and form critical components of the DOE's strategy to achieve commercial fusion energy.

• • Sweden's Storage Site for Spent Nuclear Fuel

  Building Has Begun
  
  

  Jan. 15, 2025 - Sweden started building a final storage facility for spent nuclear fuel on Wednesday, only the second such site in the world, where highly radioactive waste will be stored for 100,000 years.

  How to store deadly radioactive waste until it is safe is a question that has dogged the nuclear industry since commercial reactors began operating in the 1950s.

• • Uranium Mining Revival Portends
  Nuclear Renaissance in Texas and Beyond

  State Leaders Want Nuclear Reactors to Provide Consistent, Low-Carbon Power to Large Industrial Facilities. But...
  
  

  Dec. 1, 2024 - In the old ranchlands of South Texas, dormant uranium mines are coming back online. A collection of new ones hope to start production soon, extracting radioactive fuel from the region’s shallow aquifers. Many more may follow.

  These mines are the leading edge of what government and industry leaders in Texas hope will be a nuclear renaissance, as America’s latent nuclear sector begins to stir again.

• • Inching Toward a Fusion Energy Future

  A Handful of Startups are Racing to Usher in an Era of Near-Limitless Fusion Energy. Big Questions Remain
  
  

  Nov. 19, 2024 -In 1952, a machine with a funny name and a funny shape was zapped to life in the mountains of New Mexico. The Perhapsatron, a doughnut-shaped glass tube surrounded by magnets, was one of the world’s first nuclear fusion devices. Its name reflected the feelings of its creator, James Tuck, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory: “Perhaps it will work and perhaps it won’t.”

• • Nuclear Power - the New Rising Star Rising Star?

  Once Shunned, But Not Anymore
  
  

  Nov. 15, 2024 -For years at global climate summits, nuclear energy was seen by many as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

  Sama Bilbao y Leon has been attending the annual United Nations climate change talks since 1999, when she was a student of nuclear engineering. And for most of that time, she said, people didn’t want to discuss nuclear power at all.

• • Three Mile Island, Notorious in
  Nuclear Power’s Past, May Herald Its Future

  The Pennsylvania Plant, Site of the Worst U.S. Nuclear Energy Accident, is at the Forefront of Efforts to Expand Nuclear Capacity to Meet Rising Electricity Demand
  
  

  Nov. 15, 2024 -The concrete cooling towers that rise from a sliver of land south of Pennsylvania’s capital became symbols nearly a half-century ago of the risks of nuclear energy.

  Now, a plan to restart one of the two reactors at Three Mile Island is at the leading edge of efforts to greatly expand the country’s reliance on atomic fission to meet the growing power demands of homes, businesses and data centers.

• • The Quest to Build a Star on Earth

  We’re Closer Than Ever to Near-Limitless, Zero-Carbon Energy From Fusion. When Will We Get There?
  
  

  Nov. 15, 2024 -The quest for fusion energy — the clean, potentially limitless source that could end mankind’s power woes — began as an answer to an old question, one we’ve been asking since we first raised our heads toward the sky.

  Click now to read all about it.

• • Three Mile Island Plans to Reopen

  Demand for Nuclear Power Grows
  
  

  Sep. 20, 2024 -In a striking sign of renewed interest in nuclear power, Constellation Energy said on Friday that it plans to reopen the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst reactor accident in United States history.

• • This Startup Wants to Bury Nuclear Reactors a Mile Underground

  They Think an Underground Reactor Could Solve Nuclear Power's Biggest Problems
  
  

  Sep. 13, 2024 -In a bold move to reinvent nuclear power, Deep Fission, a startup based in Berkeley, California, is taking its reactors deep underground. The company, led by a father-daughter team, Richard and Elizabeth Muller, has raised $4 million in a pre-seed funding round to pursue this audacious idea.

• • The Nuclear Disaster Few Outside
  the Navajo Nation Remember

  The Church Rock Spill Released More Radioactive Material than the Partial Meltdown at Three Mile Island Four Months Earlier
  
  

  July 20, 2024 -As Tony Hood walked along New Mexico Highway 566 last Saturday, he thought about where he was 45 years earlier, when an earthen dam broke at the site of a uranium mill operated by the United Nuclear Corp., releasing 94 million gallons of radioactive water and 1,100 tons of uranium waste across portions of New Mexico, Arizona and the Navajo Nation.

  Hood was working inside a nearby underground mine owned by the Kerr-McGee Corp. when the dam broke on July 16, 1979. He didn’t learn about the spill until after returning to the surface.

• • Advanced Nuclear Reactors Need a Different Type of Uranium

  What We Need to Know
  
  

  July 5, 2024 -Nuclear power of the future is going to need fuel. That has governments, energy companies and nuclear engineers clamoring to get their hands on HALEU: high-assay low-enriched uranium.

  HALEU (pronounced like “Hey, Lou”) was previously a niche material, used mainly in nuclear reactors conducting scientific research. But now, multiple companies in the United States have proposed newfangled types of nuclear reactors that they claim will generate electric power more efficiently and safely.

• • AI is Exhausting the Power Grid
  

  Tech Firms Seeking a Miracle Solution
  
  

  June 21, 2024 -The mighty Columbia River has helped power the American West with hydroelectricity since the days of FDR’s New Deal. But the artificial intelligence revolution will demand more. Much more.

  So near the river’s banks in central Washington, Microsoft is betting on an effort to generate power from atomic fusion — the collision of atoms that powers the sun — a breakthrough that has eluded scientists for the past century. Physicists predict it will elude Microsoft, too.

• • Fusion Breakthrough: One
  Step Closer to Solving Key Challenges

  Another Step Towards a
  Working Fusion Reactor
  
  

  Nov. 8, 2021 - In fusion power, two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process. The process takes place in a fusion reactor and, at least in theory, this energy can be harnessed; but the practical aspects are extremely challenging.

  An important problem for fusion reactors is maintaining the plasma core extremely hot (hotter than the surface of the sun), while also safely containing the plasma — something fusion researchers refer to as “core-edge integration”.

• • Is Thorium the Nuclear Answer?

  Thorium Nuclear Reactors
  Mentioned by Andrew Yang

  Dec. 23, 2019 (energycentral)- Andrew Yang mentioned Thorium Nuclear Reactors as one of the advanced nuclear fission reactor concepts. Yang has also talked about making a prototype thorium reactor by 2027. There is a US startup working on a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. If Flibe Energy was fully funded then they could build their planned 20-50 MW modular nuclear reactor by 2027. China also has an extensive molten salt and thorium reactor program. It is also possible to have more conventional reactors or pebble bed reactors adapted to use some thorium.

  Yang has proposed nuclear subsidy—$50 billion over five years. If there was that level of subsidy, then the other advanced nuclear projects would complete for it. There would be a lot of push for the molten salt reactors that use Uranium. The Thorcon molten salt reactor seems like a design that could scale to 100 GW per year of construction. In the rest of this article, I will review the status of the US, China and Indian Thorium reactor projects.

• • TerraPower: Nuclear Innovation
  (Striving to Improve the World)

  We Need Advanced Nuclear Now
  TeraPower Says It's Rready

  TeraPower-TerraPower’s founders entered the nuclear energy arena to meet growing electricity needs and lift billions out of poverty. Advanced reactors and other isotopic applications are now possible with technology and enhanced computing capabilities that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. TerraPower says that they are ready to build the clean energy of tomorrow - today.

  One of their founders, incidentally, is Bill Gates.

• •  The Hanford Nuclear Leak Is Irreparable  

  D.O.E. To Permanently
  Close Damaged Hanford Tank

  Jan. 2, 2018 - The Energy Department says it will permanently close a damaged radioactive waste storage tank on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

  The department says that Tank AY-102 has widespread damage and should not be repaired.

  Click now for more on this earthFix story.

• •  The U.S. Backs Off Nukes - But Not Georgia 

  The U.S. Backs Off Nuclear
  Power. Georgia Wants to
  Keep Building Reactors

  Aug. 31, 2017,  The New York Times - Even as the rest of the United States backs away from nuclear power, utilities in Georgia are pressing ahead with plans to build two huge reactors in the next five years — the only nuclear units still under construction nationwide.

• • Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon?

  Keeping Uranium Mining
  Out of the Grand Canyon

  The Grand Canyon is an irreplaceable natural treasure. Its stunning vistas, ancient geology, and winding Colorado River are world renowned — drawing over 5.5 million visitors to the park each year. Moreover, more than 40 million people and 4 million acres of farmland depend on the Colorado River for clean, safe water.

  Yet, irresponsibly operated uranium mines located on federal public land just miles from the North and South Rims threaten to permanently pollute the Grand Canyon landscape and the greater Colorado River.

• • What's the NRC Hiding on Palo Verde?

  Nuclear Leaks: The Back Story
  the NRC Doesn’t Want You to
  Know about Palo Verde

  June 14,2017 - One of two emergency diesel generators (EDGs) for the Unit 3 reactor at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station in Arizona was severely damaged during a test run on December 15, 2016.

  The operating license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) allowed the reactor to continue running for up to 10 days with one EDG out of service. Because the extensive damage required far longer than 10 days to repair, the owner asked the NRC for permission to continue operating Unit 3 for up to 62 days with only one EDG available. The NRC approved that request.

• • The USA's 10 Riskiest Nuclear Power Plants 

  Where Are They - And
  What Are the Dangers?

  March 18, 2011 - As we watch the continuing catastrophe in Japan unfold with no clear expectations of the outcome, one thing is for certain: The safety of nuclear power has become a hot topic of conversation. While some countries are shutting down plants, many other are reevaluating the safety of theirs and strategizing over future plans.

• • Ohio House Speaker Arrested for Bribery

  The Speaker and Four Others
  Were Attempting to Bail
  Out the Ohio Nuclear Industry

  July 21, 2020,(POWERGRID INTERNATIONAL)-The powerful Republican speaker of the Ohio House and four associates were arrested Tuesday in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio’s two nuclear power plants.

  Hours after FBI agents raided Speaker Larry Householder’s farm, U.S. Attorney David DeVillers described the ploy as “likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio.”

  Householder was one of the driving forces behind the nuclear plants’ financial rescue, which added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo.

• • Is The Energy of the Future Finally Here?

  World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion
  Experiment Clears Milestone

  July 24, 2019,(Scientific American) -A multination project to build a fusion reactor cleared a milestone yesterday and is now 6 ½ years away from “First Plasma,” officials announced.

  Yesterday, dignitaries attended a components handover ceremony at the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France. The ITER project is an experiment aimed at reaching the next stage in the evolution of nuclear energy as a means of generating emissions-free electricity.

• • Old Nuke Plants Are Dragging Down Clean Energy

  Why America’s Old Nuclear
  Plants Could Be Dragging Down
  Clean Energy Development

  Apr. 25, 2017 -New York and Illinois are investing billions to keep old facilities in action, and Connecticut, New Jersey, and Ohio are among states contemplating the same idea. It’s an expensive process, though it does mean that new natural gas plants aren’t required to fill the gaps left by wind and solar.

• • Revisiting the Three Mile Island Meltdown 

  Documentary:Meltdown at Three
  Mile Island 40 Years Later

  EnergyCentral Mar. 28, 2019 -The Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979 is still considered the worst at a U.S. nuclear plant in history. Due to a series of human and technical errors, the core of the Unit Two reactor at TMI partially melted down.

  Though debated and controversial, research over the past 40 years concluded only a small amount of radiation escaped into the atmosphere and didn’t result in any deaths or injuries.

  This documentary details what happened inside the containment building at TMI on March 28: the chaos, confusion, miscommunication and fear in the area surrounding the plant afterwards and the legacy of TMI after the accident.

• • British Nuclear Project Becomes Messy

  Huge British Nuclear
  Project Becomes a
  Diplomatic Flash Point

  Aug. 15, 2016 -Once considered a vital part of Britain’s clean-energy future, the beleaguered Hinkley Point nuclear plant project looked further than ever from becoming reality this week as a row erupted between the three countries developing the massive facility: the U.K., France, and China.

• •  Does Fail-safe Nuclear Power Actually Exist?   

  Could We Actually Have
  Fail-safe Nuclear Power?

  Aug. 2, 2016 -The Shanghai Institute’s effort to develop molten-salt reactors, a technology that has sat all but forgotten in the United States for decades, reflects just how daring China’s nuclear ambitions are. Already, the government has invested some two billion Chinese renminbi ($300 million) over the last five years in molten-salt R&D. Building actual plants will require tens of billions more.

• •  Florida Power & Light Sued For Radio-Active Leak 

  Florida Nuclear
  Plant Operator Sued for
  Polluting Drinking Water

  July 15, 2016 -Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Florida Power & Light Co., operator of the Turkey Point nuclear facility, saying that the company violated the Clean Water Act by discharging contaminants from the plant, impacting nearby drinking water.

  Click now to read the story
  (Hint: Bring your Geiger Counter).

• • The Protrusion of Confusion Over Fusion

  The Real Problem With
  Fusion Energy

  May 27, 2016 -The longstanding joke about fusion — that it’s the energy source of the future, and always will may not be the field’s biggest problem.

  Click now for what
  might be encouraging news.

• • All Things Nuclear

  Fukushima: Taking On the NRC

  Union of Concerned Scientists - If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission balks at implementing new safeguards in a reasonable time frame on the grounds that it does not have enough information about what happened in Japan, then the agency also cannot have enough information to relicense operating reactors or license new ones...

  More by clicking now.

• • Russia Criticized For Its Arctic Nuclear Activity

  Nuclear Security: Power
  Plants Are Poorly Protected
  Against Malicious Acts

  Oct. 10, 2017   Greenpeace - The nuclear power plants around us are “The Sword of Damocles” over our heads.

  A new report by independent experts, submitted to authorities in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, questions security at French and Belgian nuclear facilities and points at their vulnerability to outside attacks. These experts are particularly concerned about a certain type of facility at nuclear plants: the spent fuel storage pools.

  These pools tend to contain the highest volume of radioactive matter in a nuclear plant and are very poorly protected. Rather than wait for the worst to happen, let’s address this issue and take action.

• • Dangers of Densely Packed Nuclear Waste Pools

  The Case for Moving U.S.
  Nuclear Fuel to Dry Storage

  Apr. 14, 2011   M.I.T. Technology Review - One of the lesser-noted facts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster—where loss of coolant in spent-fuel pools has resulted in massive radiation releases—is that some fuel at the plant was stored in so-called dry casks, and these casks survived the March 11 earthquake and tsunami intact.

  This fact is likely to result in new calls to move some spent fuel out of water pools at reactor sites in the United States—where it is packed more densely than the fuel in the stricken Japanese pools—and into outdoor dry casks, experts say.

  Worried? Click now to get radio-active.

• • Links Between Nuke Power and Weapons

  The Links Between Nuclear
  Power and Nuclear Weapons

  - Nuclear weapons and nuclear power share several common features. The long list of links includes their histories, similar technologies, skills, health and safety aspects, regulatory issues and radiological research and development. For example, the process of enriching uranium to make it into fuel for nuclear power stations is also used to make nuclear weapons. Plutonium is a by-product of the nuclear fuel cycle and is still used by some countries to make nuclear weapons.

  There is a danger that more nuclear power stations in the world could mean more nuclear weapons. Because countries like the UK are promoting the expansion of nuclear power, other countries are beginning to plan for their own nuclear power programs too. But there is always the danger that countries acquiring nuclear power technology may subvert its use to develop a nuclear weapons program.

  Click to read more from
  the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.