It is no longer you mother, father, or grandparents' nuclear energy era anymore. For years, people have feared nuclear energy and vowed to never use it. Those fears are largely based on two meltdowns in the 20th Century. Those would be the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in the then-Soviet Union, and the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania.

The former, Chernobyl, was the biggest meltdown in history that was caused by a combination of reckless incompetence and secrecy. The latter, Three Mile Island, was the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history at the time. That was largely caused by operator error, organizational confusion, and equipment failures. In that case too, radiation did not have any impacts on the public or environment.

Two instances in the last six decades have turned people off nuclear energy. But President Trump has said he wants to bring the sector back, and companies are responding to that. Many companies are now rushing advanced nuclear reactor designs to market, especially concerning small, modular rectors (SMRs). These are essentially little nuclear reactors that can be flexibly deployed in a variety of settings. In short, they make nuclear energy mobile.

Brent Bennett of the Texas Public Policy Foundation says people need to let go of the past fears.

"Generally, the safety record of even old nuclear technology is remarkable...the failure rate of these power plants is just so low," he says.

Through time, there have been close to 700 nuclear reactors built worldwide. About 400 operate today. In that time span since the 1950s, there have been just three meltdowns. The two aforementioned incidents, and the Fukushima Nuclear disaster in 2011, which was the result of the Japanese tsunami that year.

There is really nothing left to fear at this point. Green energy is not cutting it and not meeting demand, especially here in Texas. Oil and gas have been stretched thin for years. The coal industry has been basically nuked. This is as clean and reliable a form of power as you can possibly obtain.

President Trump though is bringing back a nuclear resurgence, and the Lone Star State is set up swimmingly.

"We are well positioned in terms of our supply chain, the ability to produce nuclear reactors...more so than any other place in the country...granted, it is going to take time," says Bennett. "We do have companies though that want to build here...and are at least getting close enough to the point where they have prototypes."

But as Texas keeps growing, the nuclear reactors will need to as well.

"When it comes to competing on grid, we are going to need larger facilities...these SMRs are eventually going to have to be tied together or scaled up to be bigger," Bennet says.

The new wave of nuclear energy is coming back. It is not your grandparent's nuclear energy era. It is the new era, and it could be what keeps the lights on in Texas.

San Antonio's First News