NH #789: AI and Nukes to Power Them? An Unholy Alliance – Physicist M.V. Ramana

This Week’s Featured Interview:

Physicist and author M. V. Ramana

Physicist M.V. Ramana has been featured numerous times on Nuclear Hotseat and his input is highly prized here not only for his understanding of nuclear power’s failures, shortcomings, and dangers, but the clarity with which he can explain it. He is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and a professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, at the University of British Columbia.

Ramana is the author of The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India (Penguin Books, 2012) and 2024’s Nuclear is not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim  Fellowship, a Leo Szilard Award from the American Physical Society, and the 2026 Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days award.

Here, he spells out what’s wrong with the push to make nuclear reactors the energy engine of AI data centers.

I spoke with Ramana on July 25, 2026.

Links:

• Data centers powered by next-gen nuclear? Don’t fall for Big Tech’s PR hype – Ramana article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Nuclear Is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change by M. V. Ramana
• NH # 771: HEADS UP, MICHIGAN, CHICAGO! Palisades Reactor Restart Risks Nuclear Catastrophe – Nulear Hotseat interview with Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education.
• NH #762: Nuclear Waste Specialist Kevin Kamps w/Palisades “Zombie Nuke” Restart UPDATE