Nuclear-Powered AI: The Risks of De-Regulation

(Michael J. Kelly and Craig Martin – Just Security) By 2030, global data centers will consume as much electricity as Japan, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency. Feeding that new energy demand with fossil fuels will exacerbate the climate change crisis. AI infrastructure will also put increasing strain on the electricity grid and lead to rising energy costs for communities. Incorporating solar and wind energy in hybrid systems could provide an attractive solution to both problems, but the Trump administration has declared all-out war on renewable energy, taking a range of actions to stymie its development. The administration has instead embraced nuclear—particularly new-generation small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) situated near data centers—as the optimal means to bolster energy generation for our expanding AI universe. This move has considerable appeal, particularly for those concerned about the climate change crisis and interested in cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels. But the manner and speed with which it is being developed raises serious legal and policy concerns. These concerns arise from a coordinated loosening of regulatory oversight on three fronts: (1) AI development, (2) nuclear deployment, and (3) the environmental review that would ordinarily govern both. We have written elsewhere about the risks raised by the Trump administration’s deregulation of AI development. Our concern here is with the less-examined legs of this triad: the dismantling of nuclear safety oversight and the gutting of environmental review in order to accelerate AI development. The regulatory architecture now being dismantled is the hard-earned product of lessons learned from earlier experiences in developing and operating technologies that pose high risks to both the public and the environment. – Nuclear-Powered AI: The Risks of De-Regulation