Small Nuclear Reactors Face Big Challenges
March 13, 2025
Small nuclear reactors are often viewed as a way to provide needed energy while helping curb climate change, but the “technology is struggling,” Reuters reports. In Issues, Jessica Lovering and Suzanne Hobbs Baker examine the challenges nuclear energy—writ small or large—faces. Beyond addressing technological needs, they write, the nuclear industry “will need to fundamentally rethink its history and how it operates today.” This will require “hard work to understand and address the underlying causes of opposition to nuclear,” and developing processes for siting nuclear plants “that empower communities and leave them in charge of their energy future.”