Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, April 17th, 2025, and this is a special episode of the excerpt.

While President Donald Trump seems intent on doing everything he can to revive the coal industry,

nuclear energy appears to be enjoying a resurgence in popularity driven largely by power-hungry data centers.

The problem with that, we've never quite figured out how to safely store all of that spent fuel.

And it's a problem that's about to get

exponentially worse. What's on the table to address this need? For more on nuclear's moment,

I'm now joined by Alison McFarlane, Director of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at

the University of British Columbia. Allison chaired the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2012 to 2014.

Allison, thank you for joining me on the excerpt.

Thanks for having me.

Let's start with energy sources here in America.

Oil and natural gas make up nearly three-quarters of all of our energy consumption.

Renewables like solar and wind had been steadily

expanding as costs came down. And President Trump recently said he wants to bring back the coal industry.

Both of those categories make up just under 10% each. This is 2024 data according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Nuclear energy is pegged at providing between 10 to 20% of our energy needs according to different

sources. Why expand nuclear and why now?

Well, that's a good question. I think there's another question there is, is it possible to expand nuclear now?

But the main reason to consider it is that it provides carbon-free electricity.

And so it will not contribute to climate change.

There are new reactors in Georgia as of last year, the first in decades, and plans for

more in Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, all of which will produce nuclear

...