Elon Musk: It’s possible to make ‘extremely safe’ nuclear plants

Elon Musk: It’s possible to make ‘extremely safe’ nuclear plants

Elon Musk is "pro nuclear." So said Musk on Wednesday while talking about making bitcoin mining sustainable at at hosted by the Crypto Council for Innovation. Nuclear energy is considered "clean energy" because generating nuclear energy . But due to some , legacy nuclear power plants can have a bad reputation. "I think modern nuclear power plants are safe contrary to what people may think," the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said. "I really think it's possible to make very, extremely safe nuclear." And "I'm talking about fission. You don't need fusion," Musk said. Nuclear fission is the process used in conventional nuclear reactors. With a fission reaction, larger atoms slam into each other and split into smaller atoms, which releases energy. Fusion is the opposite reaction to fission. With fusion, smaller atoms slam together and join into a heavier atom, thereby releasing energy. Fusion is the process by which the sun generates energy. "You've got that big fusion reactor in the sky called the sun. It comes up every day," Musk said. Some herald fusion as a safer way to generate nuclear energy, because fission generates that can remain dangerous for a very long time, while fusion does not generate