The EU and the Nuclear Energy Transition

The entry into modern forms of nuclear power, driven by free markets, would shatter the walls of the green trap.

Thomas Kolbe | March 23, 2026

The energy transition in the U.S. is visibly taking shape. In Tennessee, a massive nuclear power project is emerging as a U.S.-Japan joint venture. Decision-makers in business and politics would do well to study closely what is happening in the U.S. Here, we find the blueprint for breaking out of the intellectual and ideological trap.

Big developments are underway in Tennessee and Alabama. Over the next five years, the joint Japanese-American project will bring several so-called small modular reactors (SMRs) of the BWRX-300 type online. Almost one percent of U.S. electricity production -- slightly more than three gigawatts -- will be added to the existing energy mix by reactors designed by Hitachi and GE Vernova.

A caveat for purists of market economics: this is a hybrid project. While the majority is privately financed, export support from Japan as well as offtake guarantees and credit facilities accounting for roughly one percent of the total volume come from the U.S.

Overall, this project represents an investment of $40 billion. It joins a number of major initiatives currently being driven largely by the private sector in the U.S. Major platform operators and tech giants -- Google, Meta, and Microsoft -- are deeply involved in building new nuclear capacities. This disproves, above all, the claims of most German ideologues who insist that nuclear power has no future worldwide.

The fog has lifted. The truth is indisputably on the table. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz completes the evidence that Germany’s energy transition has not only failed but has destroyed hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of euros. Once the work of the eco-socialists is complete, we must conclude, more than a year’s worth of economic output may have gone up in smoke. This is economic........

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