World The Worldwide Race for Nuclear Energy

[Webster]

American Family News: A state commissioner describes a worldwide race for nuclear energy

A proponent of nuclear energy, who says big advances make it safer and more reliable that ever, insists nuclear-powered electricity is the answer for energy production in coming years and decades.

In an appearance on American Family Radio, Chris Brown said the U.S. has more nuclear reactors than any other developed nation, 96 in all, but that progress has stalled. “Currently the United States has zero in production because they are very expensive,” he said. “China has 29 currently in production, and Russia has two.”

France, which has depended on nuclear energy since the 1970s, currently gets two-thirds of its electricity from nuclear power. Its number of reactors, 56, is expected to be overtaken soon by China, which has 55 reactors supplying energy to 1.4 billion people.

Brown, a former state representative in the Mississippi House, is currently a member of the three-person Mississippi Public Service Commission.

The Magnolia State currently has one nuclear reactor, Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, located near Port Gibson. That facility, now over 50 years old, is famous for operating the largest single reactor, which can produce 1,440 megawatts, in the United States. In a related op-ed about nuclear energy, published by The Magnolia Tribune, Brown wrote nuclear energy stores “immense amounts of energy” compared to solar power that is generated only under ideal conditions.

The U.S. “must be honest about what works, and accelerate investment in advanced nuclear energy," he wrote.

Regarding the safety issue, which is predictably a main concern for the public, Brown wrote that modern-day nuclear reactors benefit from better designs, better safety systems, and decades of experience building and operating them.

Even though nuclear energy dates back to the 1950s, Brown told the “Core” program nuclear energy is an “exciting” development because of those technological advances.

With nations competing for energy, he said, “the country that gets it right is going to win the economic development battle, and the quality of life for our citizens, as well.”

 

[jswauto]

Nobody remembers this:​

A Tale of Two Reactors: April 1986​

In the spring of 1986, the global trajectory of nuclear energy was defined by two diametrically opposed events that occurred exactly 23 days apart.
In the high desert of Idaho, American engineers were proving that a nuclear reactor could be designed to safely shut itself down during a catastrophic power failure, relying entirely on the unbreakable laws of natural physics rather than complex backup systems or human intervention. Less than a month later, in the Soviet Union, a fatally flawed reactor design—one that fundamentally required perfect human operation and active mechanical cooling to prevent a runaway reaction—resulted in the worst nuclear disaster in human history.
This single month perfectly captured the ultimate dichotomy of the atomic age: the engineering triumph of foolproof "inherent safety" versus the devastating consequences of systemic design failure.
April 3, 1986: The Triumph of Physics (Idaho, USA) At the Argonne National Laboratory's site in Idaho, engineers deliberately pushed the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) to the absolute brink. By shutting off the primary cooling pumps while the reactor was at 100% power and disabling the automatic shutdown computers, they simulated the exact mechanical failures that cause meltdowns. Instead of a disaster, the unique metallic fuel and liquid sodium coolant naturally expanded and circulated, quietly dropping the reactor's power to zero without a single human action or active electronic safety system firing. It was a flawless demonstration of a reactor designed to save itself.
April 26, 1986: The Catastrophe of Design (Pripyat, USSR) Just over three weeks later, operators at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began a late-night safety test on Reactor No. 4. Unlike the EBR-II, the Soviet RBMK reactor utilized a solid graphite moderator and water coolant—a volatile combination that actually increased the nuclear reaction rate as water boiled into steam. When operators inadvertently created an unstable power state and hit the emergency shutdown button, a massive design flaw in the control rods triggered a massive power spike. The resulting steam explosion blew the 1,000-ton roof off the reactor, exposing the burning radioactive core to the atmosphere.
While Chernobyl demonstrated what happens when complex technology is pushed beyond its fragile margins, the EBR-II tests quietly proved that humanity already possessed the engineering capability to make a nuclear meltdown physically impossible.

The Ultimate Stress Test (IDAHO)​

To prove the reactor was essentially meltdown-proof, the engineering team intentionally created the exact scenarios that destroy normal power plants: a total loss of coolant flow and a total loss of the ability to dump heat.

They didn't just simulate this; they brought the reactor up to 100% full power, intentionally disabled the automatic safety shutdown systems (the "scram" systems), and literally cut the electricity to the main cooling pumps.

How the Inherent Safety Worked​

Instead of melting down, the reactor quietly and safely shut itself down entirely through natural physics, requiring zero human intervention, zero backup generators, and zero active emergency systems.
This worked because of three brilliant design choices:

• Metallic Fuel: Instead of the ceramic fuel used in most traditional reactors, the IFR used a specialized metal alloy. As the core heated up after the pumps were cut, the metal fuel physically expanded. This natural thermal expansion pushed the radioactive atoms further apart, effectively breaking the nuclear chain reaction and dropping the reactor's power output to zero.
• Liquid Sodium Coolant: Instead of using pressurized water, the entire reactor core was submerged in a massive pool of liquid sodium. Sodium is an incredibly efficient heat conductor and operates at normal atmospheric pressure, meaning there was zero risk of the massive steam explosions that destroyed Chernobyl.
• Natural Convection: Because liquid sodium transfers heat so efficiently, once the mechanical pumps were shut off, the heat of the core naturally created a strong convection current. The hot sodium rose, cooled down, and sank back to the bottom, circulating the coolant naturally to remove the residual decay heat without any mechanical pumping required.

Within ten minutes of shutting off the cooling pumps at full power, the reactor's temperature had stabilized near normal operating levels without a single electronic safety system firing. The reactor suffered zero damage to its fuel or components.

It was the ultimate mechanical fail-safe—a system designed to rely on the unbreakable laws of thermal dynamics and physics rather than complex electronic warning systems and backup pumps.

This is exactly what happened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the early hours of April 26, 1986. The disaster was the result of a "perfect storm" combining fatal engineering flaws, a delayed safety test, and a cascade of disastrous operator decisions.

1. The Fatal Design Flaws of the RBMK Reactor​

The Soviet RBMK-1000 was a massive, unique reactor design that had two critical engineering flaws that made the disaster possible:

• The Positive Void Coefficient: In most reactors, water acts as both the coolant and the "moderator" (the substance that keeps the nuclear reaction going). If the water boils away, the reaction stops. In the RBMK, water was just the coolant; solid graphite blocks were the moderator. This meant that if the cooling water boiled into steam (creating steam bubbles or "voids"), the water stopped absorbing neutrons, but the graphite kept the reaction going. As a result, more steam meant a faster reaction, which created more heat, which created more steam—a deadly feedback loop.
• The Graphite-Tipped Control Rods: Control rods are dropped into a reactor to absorb neutrons and shut the reaction down (a process called a "scram"). The RBMK control rods were made of boron (which absorbs neutrons), but the very tips of the rods were made of graphite (which accelerates the reaction). When operators pressed the emergency stop button, the rods would insert their graphite tips first, causing a brief but massive spike in power before the boron could shut it down.

2. The Ill-Fated Safety Test​

Ironically, the meltdown occurred during a safety test. The plant operators needed to prove that if the reactor lost outside power, the spinning inertia of the massive steam turbines could generate just enough electricity to run the cooling water pumps for the 60 seconds it took for the emergency diesel generators to start up.

3. The Poisoned Core (April 25)​

The test required dropping the reactor's power to about 50%. However, a power grid controller in Kiev asked them to delay the test for a few hours to meet civilian electricity demands.
During this delay, a byproduct of nuclear fission called Xenon-135 began building up in the core. Xenon is a "neutron poison"—it absorbs the neutrons needed to keep the reaction going. When the operators finally tried to lower the power for the test, the Xenon smothered the reaction, and the power plummeted to near zero.
To keep the reactor alive for the test, the operators made a catastrophic decision: they pulled almost all of the manual control rods entirely out of the core to overcome the Xenon poisoning. The reactor was now essentially a car with the accelerator pressed to the floor, being held back only by the Xenon brakes.

 

[jswauto]

4. The Trigger (1:23 AM, April 26)​

At 1:23 AM, the operators started the test. They shut off the steam to the turbine. As the turbine slowed down, the power to the cooling pumps dropped, and the water flow through the core slowed.

• The Feedback Loop Begins: Because the water was moving slower, it heated up and began to boil into steam. Because of the "positive void coefficient," this steam caused the reactor's power to rapidly rise.
• The AZ-5 Button: Seeing the power spike out of control, the shift supervisor ordered the pressing of the "AZ-5" button—the emergency scram that drops all control rods back into the core simultaneously.
• The Fatal Blow: As the rods descended, their graphite tips entered the core all at once. This displaced the remaining cooling water and caused a momentary, localized power surge so massive that the heat fractured the fuel rods.

5. The Explosions​

The fractured fuel rods superheated the surrounding water instantly.

• Explosion 1: The resulting massive steam explosion blew the 1,000-ton concrete biological shield completely off the top of the reactor and severed all the cooling channels.
• Explosion 2: Two to three seconds later, a second, far more powerful explosion occurred. Experts still debate whether this was a hydrogen explosion (caused by a chemical reaction between the superheated steam and the zirconium fuel cladding) or a small, rapid runaway nuclear chain reaction.

This second explosion completely destroyed the reactor building and exposed the superheated core to the open air. The oxygen ignited the thousands of tons of graphite moderator inside the core, creating a radioactive fire that burned for ten days and sent a plume of deadly isotopes across Europe.
How That Timeline Played Out
It is incredibly easy to look at how that timeline played out and assume the Idaho tests were buried in a shadowy, classified government cover-up. The contrast is just too insane: American engineers literally solved the meltdown problem, and yet the country basically stopped building nuclear plants.
The reality is actually a bit more frustrating than a Hollywood-style cover-up. It wasn't hidden by men in black; it was publicly assassinated by politicians in suits, and the timeline of American nuclear fear actually started long before Chernobyl.
Here is the real breakdown of how America turned its back on nuclear power, and why the ultimate "fail-safe" reactor was thrown in the trash.

1. The Real American Turning Point: Three Mile Island (1979)​

While Chernobyl was the nail in the coffin, the American nuclear industry was actually mortally wounded seven years earlier. In 1979, the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown due to a stuck valve and operator error.
While the containment building worked perfectly and nobody was hurt, the PR damage was apocalyptic.

• The Regulatory Nightmare: Overnight, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) panicked and massively overhauled safety regulations. They forced power companies to retrofit existing plants and redesign half-built ones.
• The Financial Collapse: Building a nuclear plant suddenly went from taking 5 years to taking 15 years, and the costs tripled. Power companies simply stopped ordering new reactors because they became financial black holes.

By the time Chernobyl exploded in 1986, the American public was already terrified of nuclear power, and Wall Street already hated it. Chernobyl just cemented the absolute dread.

2. The Fate of the Idaho Project (Not Covered Up, Just Killed)​

The successful 1986 tests on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) in Idaho were actually never a secret. They were heavily documented, published in scientific journals, and championed by nuclear engineers worldwide.
The project, officially called the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) program, ran successfully until 1994. So, why did it die? It was killed by a combination of post-Cold War politics and cheap fossil fuels.

• The "Breeder" Stigma: The IFR was a "breeder" reactor, meaning its physics naturally produced plutonium as a byproduct. Even though the IFR's specific design made it virtually impossible to separate that plutonium to build a nuclear bomb, politicians didn't care about the engineering nuance. In 1994, the Clinton administration—spearheaded by politicians like John Kerry—argued that if America built reactors that produced plutonium, it would encourage other countries to do the same, leading to global nuclear proliferation.
• The Budget Axe: Congress was looking to slash budgets in the 1990s. Since the anti-nuclear environmental movement was at its absolute peak, and natural gas was becoming incredibly cheap, defending a multi-billion-dollar experimental nuclear reactor was political suicide.

In 1994, Congress voted to defund the IFR program entirely. The scientists at Argonne National Laboratory were devastated. They were just three years away from completing the final phase of the project: proving the reactor could recycle and burn its own nuclear waste.

The Tragic Irony​

The technology wasn't covered up; it was just abandoned because it didn't fit the political narrative of the 1990s. Humanity possessed the blueprints for a reactor that could not melt down and ate its own radioactive waste, but we chose to burn coal and cheap natural gas instead.

Interestingly, this exact liquid-sodium technology hasn't stayed dead. Modern companies (like Bill Gates' TerraPower) are currently trying to resurrect this exact 1986 Idaho technology today?
It is incredible how these events are linked across decades. The Three Mile Island incident completely destroyed the public and financial appetite for nuclear energy in the US, which made it incredibly easy for politicians to quietly defund the Idaho project years later.
But physics doesn't care about politics, and good engineering never actually dies.
That specific 1986 "fail-safe" technology from Idaho has officially been resurrected. Here is exactly how that liquid-sodium, inherent-safety concept is becoming a reality right now in 2026.

 

[jswauto]

The Resurrection: TerraPower's Natrium Reactor​

The company bringing this technology back from the dead is TerraPower (originally founded and chaired by Bill Gates). They took the blueprints from the abandoned Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) program, modernized the engineering, and designed a new facility called the Natrium reactor.
Just like the 1986 Idaho tests, the Natrium reactor ditches high-pressure water completely. It is a 345-megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor. Because liquid sodium is so efficient at transferring heat and operates at normal atmospheric pressure, the plant relies on the exact same natural convection and physical laws to passively cool itself if the power grid fails or the pumps shut off.

What is Happening Right Now (2026 Updates)​

The project isn't just theoretical anymore—it is actively being built right now in Kemmerer, Wyoming, right next to a retiring coal plant. Here is the massive progress they have made recently:

• The Historic Permit (March 2026): In March, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officially granted TerraPower its construction permit for the nuclear island. This was a monumental hurdle. It is the very first time the NRC has ever issued a construction permit for an advanced, commercial-scale, non-light-water reactor in the United States.
• Nuclear Construction Commences (April 2026): Following the permit, TerraPower officially launched the construction of the nuclear components of the plant in April 2026. (They had already broken ground on the non-nuclear support facilities back in 2024).
• The Storage Island Innovation: TerraPower added a brilliant modern twist to the old Idaho design. They paired the sodium reactor with a massive molten salt energy storage system. This allows the reactor to run consistently at 345 megawatts, while the molten salt stores the extra heat. When peak energy demand hits (like when everyone turns their air conditioners on at 5:00 PM), the plant can use that stored heat to instantly boost its output to 500 megawatts.

The Ultimate Validation​

The Natrium project is the ultimate vindication for the engineers who worked on the Idaho project in the 80s and 90s. The fact that the US government (via the Department of Energy) is heavily funding TerraPower's Wyoming project proves that the original "inherent safety" concept wasn't just a pipe dream.

Forty years after they proved a reactor could safely shut itself down during a total power failure, that exact mechanical fail-safe is finally being used to build the next generation of the American power grid.