Nuclear restarts, small reactors and who pays
Nuclear energy appears on 26 recent papers and small modular reactors on 4, mostly in the economics journals. Technology firms now sign deals to restart closed plants and fund new reactors for data centres, and Japan has restarted reactors idle since 2011. What do these deals cost, who bears the risk, and does public acceptance follow?
What prompted this
Since October 2025, 46 papers carry a nuclear-energy keyword (34 in economics journals, 7 in finance): "nuclear energy" on 26, "small modular reactors" on 4, "nuclear energy policy" on 3. Twenty-two of them carry an acceptance, cost, investment or public-opinion keyword, but the new financing model, in which a single large buyer underwrites a plant, appears in none.
Questions
- What price per megawatt-hour do data-centre operators pay in restart and new-build agreements, and how does it compare with renewables plus storage?
- Who bears cost overruns in these contracts, and do they shift risk to ratepayers through capacity markets?
- Did the restarts in Japan change local acceptance, and did electricity prices in those regions fall?
Data that could help
Published power purchase agreements and regulatory filings for restarts, construction cost records for small modular reactors, regional electricity prices and public opinion surveys.
Next step
Collect the disclosed terms of nuclear power purchase agreements signed by technology firms since 2023 and compare their prices with contemporaneous renewable contracts.