| Summary/Abstract |
There is much ado nowadays about the flagging commercial nuclear industry in the United States. Although the country maintains the largest global fleet of reactors, more than one-third operate at a loss, and the industry is on pace to lose more than 20 percent of its generating capacity by 2050.Footnote1 This crisis is unfolding as Russia’s state-owned nuclear industry has become the largest global supplier of new nuclear reactors, driven by its build-own-operate export model and Russian government financing for international reactor projects. This financing is “large (in total amount provided), cheap (with low interest rates) and long-lived (with long repayment periods).”Footnote2 Not surprisingly, many US nuclear officials, policy experts, and corporate leaders fear that without concerted government intervention, the US nuclear industry is teetering on the precipice of irrelevance as a strategic global supplier, just as the prospects for long-term strategic confrontation with Moscow are materializing with Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.Footnote
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