Nuclear Energy

NJ ends 50 year de facto moratorium on new nuclear power

NJ ends 50 year de facto moratorium on new nuclear power

TRENTON, N.J., April 21 (ZFJ) — New Jersey has ended a 50 year de facto moratorium on new nuclear plants. Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed bill S3870/A4528 at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant on April 8, 2026, to remove an outdated permit requirement that blocked all construction on new nuclear plants. The legislation updates the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA). The act, signed in 1973, blocked permits for construction and operation of new nuclear facilities until the U.
Big Tech invests big in nuclear

Big Tech invests big in nuclear

Jan. 20 (ZFJ) — Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are investing in nuclear energy as the race to develop artificial intelligence technologies heats up. AI technologies, which are currently rapidly gaining traction, demand significant computational power to train and operate. Data centers house the hardware for them and are consuming increasingly more energy. According to a December 2024 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy research facility, total American data center electricity usage increased from 58 TWh in 2014 to 176 TWh in 2023.
Joint European Torus researchers announce nuclear fusion energy record

Joint European Torus researchers announce nuclear fusion energy record

Feb. 8 (ZFJ) — Joint European Torus (JET) researchers announced on Thursday, Feb. 8, that their tokamak set a new world record of 69.26 megajoules released in controlled nuclear fusion energy on Oct. 3, 2023, at 19:14 GMT. The record, equivalent to the energy released from burning two kilograms of coal, was set during a single pulse of JET over six seconds with only 0.21 milligrams of fuel. JET’s previous record from 2022 was 59 MJ.