© 2025 WRVO Public Media
NPR News for Central New York
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Big tech companies hope nuclear power can solve their energy problems. Will it?

Three Mile Island was closed because it wasn't economical to operate. Now Microsoft wants it restarted in the hopes it can one day supply carbon-free energy for its datacenters.
Walter Bibikow
/
Getty Images
Three Mile Island was closed because it wasn't economical to operate. Now Microsoft wants it restarted in the hopes it can one day supply carbon-free energy for its datacenters.

Artificial intelligence uses a lot of power.

Some of the next generation data centers may use as much power as one million U.S. households.

Tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta hope nuclear power will offer a climate solution for this massive energy use. Nuclear power plants can deliver hundreds of megawatts of power without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

But while Silicon Valley tends to "move fast and break things," nuclear power has a reputation for moving slowly. That's because in the nuclear energy field, "breaking things" can mean catastrophic damage. That makes some long-time watchers of the nuclear industry skeptical that it's the right investment for big tech companies to make.

Read more of science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel's reporting here.

Interested in more stories about the future of energy? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts and James Willets was the audio engineer.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Regina G. Barber
Regina G. Barber is Short Wave's Scientist in Residence. She contributes original reporting on STEM and guest hosts the show.
Geoff Brumfiel works as a senior editor and correspondent on NPR's science desk. His editing duties include science and space, while his reporting focuses on the intersection of science and national security.
Rebecca Ramirez (she/her) is the founding producer of NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. It's a meditation in how to be a Swiss Army Knife, in that it involves a little of everything — background research, finding and booking sources, interviewing guests, writing, cutting the tape, editing, scoring ... you get the idea.
Rachel Carlson
Rachel Carlson (she/her) is a production assistant at Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. She gets to do a bit of everything: researching, sourcing, writing, fact-checking and cutting episodes.