Nuclear power’s global revival

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dozens of new nuclear power projects are planned across the world, amid efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels. But why build more reactors when renewable sources of generating electricity, like wind and solar might be cheaper?

We explore why countries are turning - or returning - to nuclear fission, notably Japan, which dealt with a meltdown at its Fukushima plant in 2011. And we look at how Germany’s decision to close all of its reactors has caused problems for the country’s economy.

We also learn how Amazon, Google and Microsoft are investing in nuclear power, with plans to use smaller modular reactors to run data storage centres in the United States, as demand for electricity is expected to surge when artificial intelligence is running at full capacity.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Presented and produced by Russell Padmore

(Pictures: A photo taken on November 6, 2024, shows the construction site of Units 7 and 8 of Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in Lianyungang, China. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Nuclear power is back in favour across the world amid efforts to cut carbon emissions
0:06.0	by using reactors to generate electricity alongside renewable sources.
0:11.0	I'm Russell Padmore.
0:12.3	And in the first of two editions of business daily about atomic power,
0:16.4	I'll examine why more countries are investing in an industry which has been considered expensive and dangerous.
0:23.1	Japan is recommissioning mothballed reactors and plans to build new ones.
0:27.3	Japan cannot really function well without the use of nuclear power plants in addition to fossil fuels and hydroelectric power plants.
0:38.0	More than 60 nuclear power stations are planned or under construction in Asia, Europe and North America,
0:44.1	the industry's biggest expansion since the 1990s,
0:47.6	but should investment be directed towards renewable sources instead of nuclear?
0:51.7	We have run out of time to address the climate crisis.
0:56.1	We can't afford to mess around with technologies that don't actually do what we need them to do.
1:00.4	And the vice president of Microsoft explains why technology companies are investing in nuclear power.
1:06.6	Even more renewable energy is very important.
1:08.9	But at the same time, we think nuclear is a very vital addition and supplement and complement,
1:15.0	especially as we see the needs of AI that are in the near term.
1:18.5	Business Daily and the renewed growth of the nuclear industry.
1:22.8	A uranium bullet fired down a barrel into a uranium tonne.
1:27.7	Together, they started a nuclear chain reaction, releasing untold quantities of energy.
1:35.2	A BBC drama recreating the devastating atom bomb attack on Japan,
1:40.6	which hastened the end of the Second World War.
1:43.3	It's estimated more than 200,000 were killed by two bombs
	...

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