How should growing energy demand be met, and what role will nuclear play in the mix?

Jason Citron · Nov 25, 2024

Nuclear power is underrated and the US has effectively regulated it out of usefulness; we should have far more nuclear power plants

Energy is a critical input to society and nuclear is an amazing existing technology; if the US had kept building plants over the last fifty years the country would be far better off

Scope: speaking primarily about America

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Tom Hulme · Apr 10, 2025

A uranium ETF is the best single public holding for a ten-year horizon

Climate change is real and the cost of energy constrains productivity; nuclear — fusion and fission, with SMRs important — is the most predictable and cleanest energy source going forward, and an ETF captures the market upside without picking a single company

Scope: avoids tech stocks because he is already concentrated in tech; not betting on any individual company

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Fred Turner · Jul 18, 2026

We need more power and nuclear fission is a really good way to get it

He believes he is good at making things go faster in heavily regulated spaces, which is why he moved from wanting to invest in nuclear to co-founding a company

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Alan Chang · Jan 5, 2026

UK energy policy should deregulate all physical building and delete every energy subsidy, leaving construction to the free market

The goal of energy should be the lowest possible cost; a subsidy means a project isn't actually profitable and the higher cost is ultimately borne by ratepayers, so if a project is profitable people will build it and if not it shouldn't be built

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Fred Turner · Jul 18, 2026 · hedged

Coal power will mostly go away while gas persists, and every other source grows

Gas is cheap, works and is fast to deploy, particularly in the US

Scope: US-focused for the gas point

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Daniel Khachab · Oct 28, 2024 · hedged

He is not in favour of returning to nuclear power in Germany, though it may turn out to be the only option.

Nuclear places a lot of responsibility on future generations for problems we haven't solved yet.

Scope: personal view; concedes it might be the only way

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Harry Stebbings · Nov 25, 2024 · hedged

Nuclear power is held back because of the mass potential harm it could cause to surrounding areas

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Andrew Feldman · Oct 6, 2025

Nuclear is not unavoidable for AI's energy needs — it is a reasonable, cost-effective choice only for countries lacking cheap natural energy resources

Countries with hydro or geothermal — Canada's falling water, Finland and Iceland's geothermal — can produce extremely cheap power without nuclear; Canada in particular could develop the cheapest power on Earth

29:38 Nuclear is optional only rational for countries lacking cheap natural resources

Fred Turner · Jul 18, 2026

Accelerator-driven subcritical fission (the 'energy amplifier') is a fundamentally safer approach to nuclear because a runaway criticality accident is physically impossible

Operating at 0.97 means the reaction always fizzles out on its own; a particle accelerator supplies the extra neutrons, so turning it off stops power output entirely and nothing you do — even 10x accelerator power — can make it go critical

71:29 Accelerator driven subcritical designs remove runaway risk

Fred Turner · Jul 18, 2026 · hedged

Nuclear will be a demonstrably larger share of energy provision over the next five to ten years, with subcritical designs having a faster path to market than other players

There is a push across the whole nuclear supply chain to get more nuclear online and many teams are working on deploying new nuclear power

74:41 Nuclear share rises with subcritical reaching market first

Jason Citron · Nov 25, 2024 · hedged

Nuclear power is much safer than people believe, and living next to a coal plant is more harmful to your health than living next to a nuclear plant

Public perception is shaped by misinformation and fear-mongering rather than the actual safety record

46:54 Nuclear safety perception is worse than reality

KR Sridhar · Jun 29, 2026

In the immediate term America and the free world should export their abundant natural gas globally, because gas is the cleanest available molecule and displacing coal matters more than waiting for perfection

Natural gas has the smallest carbon footprint of available molecules and is affordable enough to displace coal — good should not be the enemy of the best — and sourcing from the free world keeps adversaries out of the supply chain

37:18 Export free world gas now to displace coal

Jonathan Ross · Sep 29, 2025

Nuclear is not the only way to power the AI buildout — renewables are also efficient and cost effective, and the real unlock is locating compute where energy is cheap

Norway has ~80% wind utilization and enough hydro that 5x wind deployment could match total US energy output consistently; allies collectively have more energy potential than China if willing to site compute there

32:26 Renewables and siting near cheap energy are as viable as nuclear