America’s Surprising Energy Advantage: How to Beat China on Clean Power

Foreign Affairs | Joseph E. Aldy, Motoy Kuno-Lewis, and Dustin Tingley

The United States can surpass China's dominance in the global clean energy transition by leveraging its technological superiority in enhanced geothermal power and small modular nuclear reactors. This strategic pivot is critical as global electricity demand is projected to surge by 75 percent over the next 25 years, driven largely by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers.

While Beijing currently controls the supply chains for wind, solar, and critical minerals, Washington possesses deep subsurface drilling expertise from its oil sector and holds a majority of advanced small reactor designs. To capitalize on these non-intermittent power sources, American policymakers must streamline disjointed regulatory frameworks and accelerate bilateral 123 agreements. Establishing an international buyers' consortium with allies like the Sapporo 5, which includes Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, will secure uranium supply chains, reduce Russia's enrichment dependency, and successfully export these clean energy capabilities globally.

Comment

The Sapporo 5 partnership exposes the severe industrial bottlenecks facing Western nuclear supply chains, where dependency on Russian state-owned Rosatom for enriched uranium remains a critical vulnerability. Rebuilding North American and European fuel fabrication and HALEU enrichment infrastructure is hindered by high capital costs that private markets rarely absorb without guaranteed long-term state procurement. Consequently, the commercial deployment of advanced small modular reactors like those designed by TerraPower remains constrained by fuel-cycle capacity rather than reactor design maturity.

To read in details click here