With the power-hungry tech industry looking to nuclear energy to meet the rising demands of Artificial Intelligence (AI), SPPGA Director Allison Macfarlane and Prof. M. V. Ramana provide expert opinion about its risks, costs, and long-term sustainability.
AI’s Energy Demands and Nuclear’s Uncertain Future
In the recent Georgetown Journal of International Affairs article, “AI’s Energy Demands and Nuclear’s Uncertain Future,” Director Allison Macfarlane writes about the recent wave of partnerships between tech companies and the nuclear industry. While organizations like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are exploring both existing nuclear plants and unproven small modular reactors (SMRs), Macfarlane’s article highlights major economic and technical challenges associated with this while cautioning governments to prioritize proven renewable energy sources over risky, long-term nuclear bets.
She was also quoted in the Nature article “How the US tech industry is shaping the transition to green energy,” raising the numerous issues related to SMRs and noting “with nuclear, it’s always the price tag that kills it, and there’s nothing different about small modular reactors.”
The Waste Problem
Prof. Macfarlane served as the chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2012 to 2014. “It is irresponsible to go forward and build new reactors if you haven’t solved the waste problem” she notes in The Wall Street Journal‘s article “A Nuclear-Power Revival Brings Back an Old Problem: What do Do With the Waste.”
When asked about Waste to Stable Salt (WATSS) processing in the Canada’s National Observer article “New technology could reduce nuclear waste while generating power,” she argues it still doesn’t eliminate the need for proper disposal. “If we want to protect future generations, we have one solution — it is to put it in a deep geological repository.”
Propaganda and the Nuclear Renaissance
In an article written for CounterPunch, Prof. M. V. Ramana critiques narratives that serve corporate interests, suppress critical public debate, and ignore deeper questions about the desirability and environmental costs of unchecked AI and nuclear expansion.
“One effect of this slew of propaganda has been the near silence on the question of whether such growth of data centers or AI is desirable, even though there is ample evidence of the enormous environmental impacts of developing AI and building hyperscale data centers. Or for that matter the desirability of nuclear power.” (Read “Continued Propaganda About AI and Nuclear Power” here)
M.V. Ramana also features prominently in the Financial Times documentary Are we on the brink of a nuclear revival? that can be viewed below:
