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Smaller reactors bring nuclear power closer to fulfilling its promise

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Shadowed by past disasters, nuclear engineers are developing different types of reactor, fuel, coolant and material that could help to make fission the zero-carbon energy technology of choice.

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  • Neil Savage0
  1. Neil Savage

    1. Neil Savage is a science and technology journalist in Massachusetts.

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Nuclear power plants have not exactly sprouted like daisies across the United States. The country’s first commercial nuclear reactor of the twenty-first century didn’t come online until 2016. That was Unit 2 of the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Tennessee, which arrived two decades after Unit 1.

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Nature 656, S2-S4 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02506-4

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Nuclear power, a supplement produced with financial support from Oklo Inc.. Nature maintains full independence in all editorial decisions related to the content. About this content.

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