How Rich Countries Can Build Nuclear Power Cheaply Again
Rachel Slaybaugh, nuclear scientist and partner at venture capital firm DCVC, joins Zero to explain why nuclear has become another China success story.
A turbine generator inside PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California on Aug. 5, 2025.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergElectricity demand is booming, and it’s not just because of artificial intelligence. So much so that many are ready to revisit the idea of nuclear power. Microsoft signed a $16 billion deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power their data centres for the next 20 years.
But developed countries haven’t built more than a handful of new reactors in decades. When they have tried, the cost of those nuclear plants and the time to build them has been extraordinary. Will this renewed interest yield different results?