The U.S. Department of Energy

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Experts weigh in on next-generation nuclear reactors The U.S. is pursuing small modular reactors and advanced reactors, with Russia and China being the only countries that currently operate them. The AP turned to White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi and other experts to answer some of your questions. Read more.

Why this matters: Faster development is one thing Congress and the administration agree on. President Joe Biden signed legislation in July to modernize the licensing of new reactor technologies so they can be built faster. Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate environment and House energy committees praised the enactment.   The U.S. is speeding up efforts to license and build a new generation of nuclear reactors to supply carbon-free electricity. In efforts to boost this new technology, the Energy Department announced $900 million in funding in June, while Bill Gates’ company, TerraPower, is the first in the U.S. to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction permit for an advanced reactor that would operate as a commercial nuclear power plant.

Related coverage ➤ Democrats trust Harris slightly more than Biden on climate change, an AP-NORC poll finds  Blackouts in extreme weather drive demand for cleaner backup power  Watchdogs want US to address extreme plutonium contamination in Los Alamos’ Acid Canyon

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Energy Department loans $1B to help finance the restart of nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday that it will loan $1 billion to help finance the restart of the nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island that is under contract to supply power to data centers for tech giant Microsoft.

https://apnews.com/article/three-mile-island-nuclear-power-constellation-microsoft-energy-b36d8ce1b68891e18d165063f57e4c5b?

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⚡️ Data center power boom

Data: BloombergNEF; Chart: Alex Fitzpatrick/Axios Power demand from U.S. data centers will hit 106 gigawatts by 2035, Axios' Ben Geman writes from new BloombergNEF research. ? That's up 36% from the group's April outlook, "illustrating just how quickly the sector is expanding." ? Data center development is moving away from cities and into the suburbs as space needs grow, the researchers add. ? Big tech and the Trump administration are all in on AI — and scrambling to find new power sources for the emerging tech. ? Yet the data center boom is fueling reliability fears and consumer backlash as electricity prices rise. "These pressures point to an inflection moment for U.S. grids: the desire to accommodate AI-driven load without undermining reliability or driving up power costs," the researchers say. Go deeper.