As we’ve seen in the coronavirus pandemic, our society will need data centers, but the top two sources of energy used by the United States are still based on fossil fuels.

For Matt Crozat, the Senior Director of Strategy and Policy at the Nuclear Energy Institute, a more wholistic approach is needed.

“I think as we continue to see the economy evolve and embrace the role of data and digitization, I think making sure the energy system is evolving along with it to meet the goals we’re talking about - this isn’t just a nuclear question, this isn’t just a wind question or a solar question, it’s how we find the right tools to bring them all together at the same time,” he said. “I think those that are leading this economic evolution can also lead the energy evolution as well.”

There may still be a stigma around nuclear energy, which can conjure up images like the eerie scene painted in the 2019 HBO mini-series about the Chernobyl disaster. The infamous Three Mile Island incident sparked a series of reforms, though, that led to the creation of a stringent federal oversight body.

“That was a pretty serious wake-up for the industry. That set off a path to really emphasize safe operations and make sure these kind of challenges and threats were not be a feature going forward,” Crozat said.

Now, Crozat said, things are designed in a much safer way than they were when Three Mile Island opened in the 1970s and certainly than when Chernobyl opened in a way that even modern American scientists of the time wouldn’t have opted to design a reactor.

With safety measures in place and no dependence on fossil fuels, nuclear has a role to play in powering the data centers that are helping change our future.