DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

Tech firms and Silicon Valley billionaires have been pouring money into nuclear energy for years, pitching the sustainable power source as crucial to the green transition. While generative AI has grown at lightning speed, nuclear power projects are heavily regulated and usually advance at a plodding pace. That's raising questions about whether advances in nuclear energy can cut emissions as swiftly as energy-guzzling AI and other fast-growing technologies are adding to them. The nuclear power industry hasn't meaningfully expanded its share of the U.S. energy mix for decades. By one estimate, up to 800 gigawatts of new nuclear power will be needed by 2050 to meet current green energy targets.

Persons: Sarah Myers West, Myers, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Altman, Jacob DeWitte, Oklo, hadn't, You've, DeWitte, Oklo's Organizations: Silicon, CNBC, Helion Energy, Microsoft, federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Air Force, NRC, Idaho National Laboratory, Energy Department, Pew Research Locations: Idaho, Ohio, United States, Alaska, U.S, Ukraine, Fukushima, Japan

☆ Opinion | Small Donors Are a Big Problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Thomas B. Edsall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of the most important developments driving political polarization over the past two decades is the growth in small-dollar contributions. Increasing the share of campaign pledges from modest donors has long been a goal of campaign-finance reformers, but it turns out that small donors hold far more ideologically extreme views than those of the average voter. In their 2022 paper, “Small Campaign Donors,” four economists, Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte and Vincent Pons, document the striking increase in low dollar ($200 or less), campaign contributions in recent years. Bouton and his colleagues found that the total number of individuals grew from 5.2 million in 2006 to 195.0 million in 2020. Over the same period, the average size of contributions fell from $292.10 to $59.70.

Persons: Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte, Vincent Pons, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Bouton Organizations: White

☆ Sam Altman explains why he's helping to take nuclear microreactor company Oklo public via SPAC
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

And if we get those, we'll be quite surprised about how different and how much better the future is," Altman told CNBC in a phone conversation on Friday. I think there's urgent demand for tons and tons of cheap, safe, clean energy at scale," Altman told CNBC. I mean, maybe we could get there just with solar and storage," Altman told CNBC. There's no lack of desire or need for this," Altman told CNBC. Some of that is the reactor's smaller size, but some of it is how the Oklo reactors have been designed.

Persons: Gensler, Sam Altman, Oklo, Jake DeWitte, Aurora, Altman, chatbot, Caroline Cochran, Jacob DeWitte, Y, OpenAI, Joel Saget, He's, We've, DeWitte Organizations: AltC Acquistion Corp, CNBC, Microsoft, Oklo, Y Combinator, Afp, Getty, Helion, Southern, Initiative, U.S . Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Locations: ramping, OpenAI, Paris, Georgia, U.S, Southern Ohio, Idaho

☆ Trump's 'states rights' abortion stance is drawing criticism from the right — but don't expect it to dent his evangelical support in Iowa: 'I don't think we can die on that hill'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Trump has backed away from a nationwide law on abortion, saying the issue is best left to states. Asa Hutchinson, and Sen. Tim Scott of Florida — declined to draw a strong contrast with Trump on abortion. That statement quickly upset many on the anti-abortion right. Maggie DeWitte, the director of an Iowa anti-abortion group, had a table that included "free babies." "We need to convince more people that the life position is the right position," said Horman.

☆ Why Silicon Valley is so hot on nuclear energy and what it means for the industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

Pallava Bagla | Corbis News | Getty ImagesVenture capitalists in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs are investing money in nuclear energy for the first time in history. This surge of private investment will be a positive for the industry, agrees John Parsons, an economist and lecturer at MIT. Nuclear energy is "a very complex science, and it's been supported by the federal government and at these national labs. In the 1960s and 1970s, large conglomerates constructed big nuclear power plants, and those projects often ran over budget. New generations of nuclear reactors will have different sizes, different coolants and different fuels, explained Matt Crozat, senior director of policy development at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Search resuls for: "DeWitte"

5 mentions found