Slow, Steady Progress for Two U.S. Nuclear Power Projects
May 20, 2020
There are 53 nuclear reactors currently under construction around the world. Only two are in the United States, once the world’s leader in nuclear energy development.
IEEE Spectrum interviewed incoming 2020 Wall Scholar M.V. Ramana about the idea of harnessing multiple smaller reactors in a single design, an idea that dates back as far as the 1940s. At the time, Ramana says, the economics of the smaller, modular design could not compete with bigger, individual reactors.
Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. As a Wall Scholar, he hopes to explore nuclear energy from many different directions and intellectual perspectives to come up with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary picture of the nuclear energy sector, and engage policy making more generally.
Related People