Trump in Nuclear Power Push Dubbed “Manhattan Project 2”
Donald Trump is poised to sign an executive order to drive a nuclear power push dubbed “Manhattan Project 2” to help the US win the global race for artificial intelligence. The Telegraph has more.
The order is expected to fast track the development of nuclear power stations in the United States, which would then supply the huge data centres required for AI.
The Trump administration is seeking ways to counter the “huge resources” being deployed by China to develop the nascent technology.
Chris Wright, the US Energy Secretary, warned earlier this year that the clamour to build the power sources required to meet the growing need from AI had become “Manhattan Project 2”, in reference to the country’s programme to develop atomic bombs during the Second World War.
He said: “It is critical, just like Manhattan Project 1, that the United States wins this race.
“China has huge resources. They are massively focused on artificial intelligence.
“If we don’t unleash American innovation and American entrepreneurs and American construction and bold moves, we will lose Manhattan Project 2.”
The executive order aims to ease the process to approve new nuclear reactors and will also bolster supply chains.
In a sign of his focus on America’s power needs, Mr Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day back in the White House in January.
The US was the first country to develop nuclear power and has 94 nuclear reactors, supplying 97 gigawatts of energy, which gives it the largest nuclear capacity in the world.
Technology companies including Microsoft and Google have embraced nuclear power as a way to meet their expanding energy needs as the US Government seeks to catch up with the boom in demand. …
A draft summary of the executive order is… said to direct Government agencies to permit new nuclear facilities. The departments of energy and defence will also be required to identify federal lands and facilities that can be used for nuclear deployment.
In the US nuclear power has bipartisan support, with Democrats in favour of building new reactors because it is virtually free from carbon emissions.
By contrast Republicans are supportive of new nuclear plants as they provide a reliable source of electricity compared to intermittent energy from wind and solar power, which rely on batteries to provide a consistent supply of power.
Worth reading in full.
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Luckily Britain has Ed Miliband who will continue his crusade to de-industrialise the UK forcing us all into Stone-Age poverty so we won’t ever have any data centres in Britain.
I don’t have much of an opinion on this but we were told (and there seems to be some evidence it’s true) that the Chinese Deepseek LLM was trained using considerably less resources than the US flagship LLMs.
The technology that’s still behind present-day AI was developed in the 1960s. It was heavily funded by DARPA until some time in the 1990s, when the so-called AI winter ensued because the DoD stopped pouring money into something which never ever produced anything useful. Google resurrected this spectre from the past for some reason unknown to man. Since then, it’s again a “nascent technology” (as it’s only a little over 60, it’s practically a pre-teen, given how slowly everything in IT tends to move) which keeps producing – as ever – a lot of sizzle but no steak, as a former French aquaintance of mine once quipped.
100% RW
AI will turn out to be a nothing burger. Simply because garbage in, garbage out. Good luck trying to differentiate good AI from bad.
Nuclear power stations – good, lots of stupid AI data centres, not so much.
The human race will survive very nicely thank you without them.
I can see no benign purpose for them.
Important question – what are they going to be used for? Already all our personal data is hoovered up and analysed, and to date nothing good has come of that.
On the other hand if the renewable power resources ran low for any reason we could divert the power supply of AI Data centres to other uses.
Agreed, except the robots might not let us!
More nuclear power, that’s brilliant, yes just what we nee-
… Oh gawd not for Artificial Intelligence, no no no. What a waste of everyone’s time.
Hinckley Point C two times over budget, now expected £41 billion, 10 years behind schedule, lifetime, inflation linked guaranteed price of £128 per MWh – initially supposed to be £24 per MWh – about the same as wind and solar.
Coal and gas can delver for about £70 per MWh – so what’s brilliant about paying more?
Yes. That’s in the UK. Do you reckon big IT companies in the USA would buy electricity at that price?
I admit I have no data but I’d bet the US expects the nuke stations to beat the price of gas-generated electricity.
We have some way to go yet given that both of the other plants of this design were five times over budget and twelve years late.
Factory made compact (or small) nukes have seemed to me the answer since they were explained to me by a professor of chemical engineering over ten years ago.
Unfortunately UK regulations are far too restrictive and UK governments have failed to provide the wholehearted commitment needed.
If the US gives this technology its full backing it will dominate the market and the UK will, again, miss out on all the value added benefits.
We will not be able to avoid buying them if we are to avoid the total collapse of critical infrastructure: hospitals, the internet and security/defence bases are the most obvious but without reliable power we will loose the income from the “City”.
I thought that the UK was the first country to develop nuclear power although Google tells me it was the USSR.
I don’t allow Google to tell me anything. Bring back the days when all it did was crawl the internet and index the sites it found so you could find stuff.
Those days long gone!
USSR is correct I believe – UK was first out of the ‘west’ on a commercial scale, though US did have a small plant. Naturally it was all primarily to make bomb material at the start, with some electricity being a nice side product.
makes me laugh though – all these successful companies, none of which are planning to depend on renewables to run their data centres. Physics competes with politics, and physics ALWAYS wins
I’ll take the nuclear power, but not the the oxymoron called artificial intelligence.
AI is as reliable as the BBC.
Nuclear reactors are the most expensive way of producing electricity. They require capital subsidies (taxpayer pays) and/or guaranteed subsidised, lifetime, inflation linked prices (consumer pays) just like wind and solar.
By far quickest and cheapest electricity generators are coal gas.
The sudden obsession with nuclear is just like the obsession with wind and solar, ignoring all cost factors.
So you can be sure in the US, there will be lots of taxpayer money available.
Expensive when outsourced to the Chinese, by the ignorant. 🙂
Why is cheap electricity so abundant where I live, in France?
And why is EU member Denmark able to stop immigration despite being signed up to the same ECHR that we are…
Because they want to….
Why is AI important? ‘Positioning the United Kingdom for Strategic Advantage in a Fractured Global Order From Superiority to Supremacy – AI as the Defining Edge The world is no longer simply competitive – it is contested. We are entering an era of persistent confrontation, characterised by renewed great power competition, systemic instability, and the proliferation of grey-zone conflict. As adversaries deploy hybrid warfare, cyber offensives, and disinformation at scale, the very concept of deterrence is being redrawn. Against this backdrop, Artificial Intelligence is emerging not merely as a technological tool, but as a strategic force multiplier. It determines who sees first, understands fastest, and acts with precision — across every domain and in every battlespace. AI is not support. It is now central to strategic advantage. The next evolution of AI offers the UK Armed Forces the opportunity to move beyond adaptation and into shaping the terms of future conflict. It enables a posture not just of readiness, but of relevance, leadership, and control in an era where data dominance equates to operational dominance. The Geopolitical Context: Strategic Complexity, Systemic Risk Today’s security environment is defined by: State-Based Peer Competition: Russia remains a near-term military threat, as seen in… Read more »
‘The UK’s Defence Imperative: A Strategic Pivot to Intelligence-Defined Warfare The Integrated Review Refresh 2023 declares global security as deteriorating. The Defence Command Paper 2023 accepts that the UK’s current advantage is finite. Meeting the challenge requires: Smarter, Faster, More Agile Force Posture: Build a force structure that can anticipate, adapt, and respond dynamically to threat vectors across multiple domains. This means deeply embedding AI into operational planning, logistics coordination, and real-time mission execution — creating forces that manoeuvre not just with firepower, but with foresight. Cognitive Dominance in Complex Operations: Equip our commanders and units with AI-enhanced tools that provide superior situational awareness, enemy intent prediction, and rapid threat discrimination. This requires parallel upskilling of personnel to ensure they can understand, trust, and effectively command AI-influenced decisions. Readiness to Act Across The Spectrum: Ensure UK forces can seamlessly transition from humanitarian operations to full-scale warfighting, guided by AI-enabled decision frameworks that provide flexible, risk-informed options. Investing in the human-machine interface will be critical — operational agility must be matched with cognitive adaptability through continuous skill development. AI is the critical enabler of this transition. It is not a supporting layer. It must become the core operating system of Defence readiness, deterrence, and advantage… Read more »
This agenda is truly dismal you will see this if you have followed it over the last few years. The idea is that it is impossible to beat a country like China which has immense contrlo over its subjects without developing even more advanced levels of control. No sane person talks about the Manhattan Project in a positive light given the horrors that it unleashed. There was a time when it was considered taboo for people in high office to allude to nuclear weapons. This is real end of empire desperation. I daresay he is articulating a widespread sentiment. You have to get out of this Thanatos drive.
Off-T BREAKING NEWS: SCOTUS RULING EMPOWERS TRUMP TO REMOVE HEADS OF INDEPENDENT FEDERAL AGENCIES In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled that President Donald J. Trump possesses the authority to dismiss the leaders of independent federal agencies without cause, effectively dismantling the protections that have shielded these entities from presidential oversight. This ruling signifies a dramatic shift in power dynamics, allowing Trump to eliminate unaccountable officials loyal to the previous administration, starting with Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board. This ruling is not merely a legal victory; it represents a significant constitutional realignment, stripping away the barriers erected by bureaucrats, lobbyists, and legal experts that have long insulated the federal bureaucracy from direct presidential control. The Supreme Court’s decision restores full executive power to Trump, reaffirming that all executive departments are now directly accountable to the President, in accordance with Article II of the Constitution. A NEW ERA OF EXECUTIVE CONTROL The implications of this ruling are profound. Trump now has the power to remove entrenched bureaucrats without needing approval from Congress or the courts, allowing him to swiftly address administrative obstacles… Read more »
Thank goodness for that.
“Independent” in this context means continuing political elite (left) policies regardless of elections.
Independent of what?
Reality?
Accountability?
You have to let the managed decline happen but don’t do it with such credulity and wide-eyed optimism. When western Europe is put in its rightful place in terms of resources you will have plenty of time to contemplate your poverty. But I suppose he is an amusing touch in the end times. Every 400 years things shift in a fundamental way. In England we are so used to be being awash with money and power that we can barely imagine anything else.
“… we are so used to be being awash with money and power …”
You might move in those circles but, for most of my life, the people I have met have known there’s no such thing as a free lunch, though they have expected not to be ripped off by their acquaintances, unlike today.
Those expecting a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, without considering whether what they make is saleable, are assuming that someone is awash with money or, at least, more money than sense. They will have problem.
Others will be relieved that these unthinkers will hit reality.
“The US was the first country to develop nuclear power…..”. Is that true? They might have been relatively early when it came to ramping up the industry, but I always thought that the old Calder Hall station in Cumbria was the fist working type commissioned and connected to normal grid output. It came on stream in October 1956, officially switched in by the Queen, no less https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_Hall_nuclear_power_station Alright, it wasn’t developed initially as a public power unit, rather that was a by-product of a nuclear weapons process at (now known as) Windscale.
Thank God for President Trump. His cabinet, admin, advisors, the best in the world. Thank God he is our president.
The question that needs answering is: has Britain become so industrially and economically retarded that a come back is almost impossible without serious, and harsh (reduce welfare to subsistence only, charitise and mutuakise healthcare, etc) measures? Or is it worse; there is no coming back?