Big Tech is betting on a nuclear future. The World Bank is still stuck in the past.

Our international financial institutions are painfully behind the tech curve.

For those keeping score on nuclear power, here’s a quick tally:

✅ Microsoft (last month): We’re going to buy power from a reopened Three Mile Island power plant.

✅ Google (two days ago): We’ll buy power from multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) to be built by Kairos Power. 

✅ Amazon (today): We’re investing directly in SMR construction by X-energy. 

✅ 25 major economies, including the United States, Canada, France, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Morocco, Poland, UAE, and the UK: We pledge to triple our nuclear power by 2050.

🤷 Longtime skeptic Italy: We’re reconsidering our anti-nuclear policy.

🤷 Fellow skeptic Australia: Us too.

❌ World Bank: “We will not finance nuclear power generation or provide specific technical assistance for its assessment and development…nor will [we] build internal capacity in matters related to nuclear power generation.” (Energy Strategy, page 14.)

I’ve already weighed in on why the World Bank should open itself to nuclear tech, why it matters to the world, and some very practical next steps they could take starting next year.  

Pressure will be mounting next week at the annual Bank-IMF meetings, and even more so at COP in November when we should expect to see more pledges and even more pro-nuclear signatories.

Let’s hope the raft of new announcements from companies and governments will help build momentum for the development finance giant to finally catch up.