Small modular reactors and microreactors could power AI data centers and factories, but outdated rules and public fears are stalling America's nuclear energy future.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG .

The Download: Quantum computing for health, and why the world doesn't recycle more nuclear waste Plus: The FBI has admitted it's buying Americans' location data. In a laboratory on the outskirts of Oxford, a quantum computer built from atoms and light awaits its moment. The device is small but powerful--and also very valuable. Infleqtion, the company that owns it, is hoping its abilities will win $5 million at a competition next week. The prize will go to the quantum computer that can solve real health care problems that conventional "classical" computers are unable to solve. But there can be only one big winner--if there is a winner at all.

The Download: The Pentagon's new AI plans, and next-gen nuclear reactors Plus: The OpenClaw frenzy has led to a new Nvidia product. The Pentagon plans to set up secure environments for generative AI companies to train military-specific versions of their models on classified data, MIT Technology Review has learned. AI models like Anthropic's Claude are already used to answer questions in classified settings, including for analyzing targets in Iran. But allowing them to train on and learn from classified data is a major new development that presents unique security risks. It would also bring AI firms closer to classified data than ever before. What do new nuclear reactors mean for waste?

This story appears in the April 2026 print edition. While some stories from this issue are not yet available to read online, you can explore more from the magazine . Get our editors' guide to what matters in the world, delivered to your inbox every weekday. The race to power AI is already remaking the physical world. Three Mile Island's cooling towers have until recently served as grave markers for America's nuclear-power industry. A s we drove through southwest Memphis, KeShaun Pearson told me to keep my window down--our destination was best tasted, not viewed. Along the way, we passed an abandoned coal plant to our right, then an active power plant to our left, equipped with enormous natural-gas turbines. Pearson, who directs the nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution, was bringing me to his hometown's latest industrial megaproject.

Minamitorishima is nearly 1,250 miles east of Tokyo. The island is surrounded by a coral atoll and is only 0.6 miles wide. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Nuclear power is on the rise around the world, but with it comes an extremely pressing question: where will all of the radioactive waste be stored? For Japan, one answer may lie in literally the most remote location at their disposal.

Plus: social media firms have agreed to be assessed on how effectively they protect teens' mental health A "QuitGPT" campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month and offers more access to advanced models, to speed up his work. But he grew frustrated with the chatbot's coding abilities and its gushing, meandering replies. Then he came across a post on Reddit about a campaign called QuitGPT. QuitGPT is one of the latest salvos in a growing movement by activists and disaffected users to cancel their subscriptions. In just the past few weeks, users have flooded Reddit with stories about quitting the chatbot. And while it's unclear how many users have joined the boycott, there's no denying QuitGPT is getting attention.

But not in the way Fukushima's geneticists thought. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. In the regions surrounding the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in northeast Japan, radioactive domestic pigs and wild boar are rapidly interbreeding. While far from the only recent incident of animal hybridization, the situation is presenting wildlife biologists with an unprecedented opportunity to examine the issue in real-time, as well as provide a template for studying the growing problem worldwide. In 2011, a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake in the Pacific Ocean rocked Japan.

AI Is Here to Replace Nuclear Treaties. The last major nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia just expired. Some experts believe a combination of satellite surveillance, AI, and human reviewers can take its place. For half a century, the world's nuclear powers relied on an intricate and complex series of treaties that slowly and steadily reduced the number of nuclear weapons on the planet. Those treaties are gone now, and it doesn't appear that they'll be coming back anytime soon.