James B. Meigs in City Journal:
As 2024 dawns, the prospects for a nuclear revival in the U.S. look mixed. On one hand, many once-skeptical environmentalists now support the technology. Bipartisan majorities in Congress back funding for nuclear research and deployment. And more than two dozen startups are developing a new generation of small, innovative reactor designs. But momentum slowed in November, when NuScale Power, the Portland, Oregon-based company pioneering small modular reactors (SMRs), announced the cancellation of its showcase project to build a power facility in Idaho. If completed, the project would have been the nation’s first SMR power plant. Backers hoped that the endeavor would prove that this new approach to nuclear technology can deliver affordable, zero-carbon power to our electric grid. Instead, delays and escalating costs forced NuScale to shelve the project before it even broke ground.
More here.