November 21, 2024

Skyrocketing energy prices are placing downward pressure on economic growth throughout the world. There seems to be no relief in sight, with hundreds of millions without access to reliable energy and with global energy consumption expected to grow by 50 percent over the next 30 years. Some would impose energy rationing—or in other words, slow human progress. However, with nearly 46 percent of the world’s population living on less than $5.50 per day, slowing human progress is unacceptable. The only solution is more energy and lots of it.

Jack Spence, in Going Nuclear: Powering the Next Generation, argues that nuclear energy offers real answers to powering our homes and industries, cleaning our air and water, and maybe even taking us to Mars. However, we have been getting nuclear power wrong for decades. Skeptics say that nuclear energy is too expensive and threatens the world with the proliferation of nuclear weapons material and radioactive waste. Proponents say that nuclear power needs and deserves the support of the state and the taxpayer, cradle to grave.

The time has come, Spencer argues, to think big nuclear energy and pull it out of the time capsule that pop culture, environmental activists, lobbyists, peaceniks, and policymakers are all too content to leave nuclear in. Spencer writes that while the government-industry partnership that defined the early years of America’s commercial nuclear rise was essential to the nation’s security, reluctance to modernize that relationship has prevented the American nuclear industry from reaching its full potential. In its place, Spencer offers an alternative that shatters how we think about nuclear energy policy and realigns the responsibilities of government and industry with the incentives that will drive America to success.

Nuclear Revolution describes why government intervention in the nuclear industry is a problem, how to move from the status quo to something new, and why such reforms will kick off an era of nuclear entrepreneurship and innovation. Over 70 years ago, nuclear energy entered the scene with great promise. Now more than ever, the world needs that promise delivered, and America can lead the way.