Remember when we first figured out how to do this and everyone though that by the 2020s we'd be running nuclear powered cars and vacuum cleaners and shit?

Yeah me neither cause I wasn't born yet but still, why couldn't I have been born into that world

"Human nature"

can't wait until elon musk unveils the CyberReactor and it blows up and idk causes the yellowstone eruption

The US could probably still build maritime nuclear reactors for subs

they could pay russia to build it :D

tbs the article says the US is still the leader in nuclear production

Killing americans.

good point, there's no path for US to actually catch up

lol wouldn't be surprised if this is a wildly optimistic estimate

They have to write something that sounds plausible against the backdrop of american exceptionalism.

Looking at Wikipedia, the US has brought 2 new nuclear reactors online at a plant in Georgia this decade. Meanwhile, China, has brought 8 online in the same time span. Before those 2 reactors, the US only brought 1 other online since 1996, and that one began construction in 1973. If I counted correctly, China has brought 54 online and operational in that same period, all since 2002. Most have a capacity of at least a gigawatt like the most recently completed US reactors. China also has 25 reactors already under construction, while the US has none. Just 9 that are planned. Also, the US hasn't managed to get a reactor operational within 10 years of the start of construction since 1987, while most of China's recent new reactors have taken around 6 years from start of construction to operation.

Some of China's reactors are designs from US companies, so the US clearly has the ability to design competitive reactors. Building them is another story though.

Rookie numbers