Why nuclear power is so hot right now

Governments in Canada, the U.S. and abroad along with tech giants are all eyeing nuclear power to meet a growing demand for electricity and climate goals at the same time. 

Just days ago, the U.S. announced plans to triple its nuclear capacity by 2050. Tech giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft are tapping nuclear to support their power hungry AI services. 

Closer to home, Ontario is refurbishing old nuclear plants and building new ones. There has also been interest in building new nuclear plants in New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec. 

Abroad, China has more than doubled its nuclear power capacity in the past decade. The World Nuclear Association says dozens of other countries are considering, planning or starting nuclear power programs. At the UN climate summit COP29 this month, six more countries signed a declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050, bringing the total signatories to 31.

Here's a closer look at why there seems to be renewed interest in nuclear, despite the rise of cheap wind and solar.

Nuclear has had its ups and downs. A large number of new reactors were built in the 1970s and 1980s. Then in 1986, the worst nuclear disaster in history occurred at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine. More than 30 workers and firefighters died and a 30-kilometre radius around the plant was left uninhabitable by the radiation released, making the public around the world leery of nuclear. 

Globally, the share of electricity generated from nuclear power has shrunk since the mid-1990s, from more than 17 per cent to around nine per cent, according to Our World In Data and Ember, a clean energy think-tank. Reactors built decades earlier were starting to retire, IEA data shows.

Then, in 2011, a huge earthquake and tsunami damaged three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, releasing radiation and forcing the evacuation of 154,000 people. Although the accident caused no known injuries, illnesses or deaths, it dampened the public's support for nuclear power again. 

Japan suspended operations at 46 of its 50 operational nuclear reactors. Germany and Belgium decided to phase out nuclear power. Spain and Switzerland decided not to build new nuclear plants.

In fact, Chernobyl was the only nuclear accident to result in any deaths of workers or members of the public from radiation exposure in the past 60 years, reports the World Nuclear Association. That's despite the fact that if you added together the operating time of nuclear reactors in 36 countries around the world in those decades, it would total 18,500 years.

Christopher Gully, vice-president of communications and member engagement at the Canadian Nuclear Association, said "misconceptions and fears" about nuclear safety and the potential to use the technology to make nuclear weapons led people to shy away from nuclear power.

"And also, frankly, there were very cheap alternatives in the form of natural gas and coal." 

But burning those fossil fuels for electricity generates carbon emissions and is the main cause of climate change. Many countries including Canada have pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and turn to non-emitting power generation.

One of the reasons nuclear has recently received renewed attention is because it doesn't emit carbon dioxide, said Gully. "But I think the other thing that is becoming clear is the role of nuclear in providing energy security."