The US will need more nuclear power as it enters into greater competition with China, said Mike Gallagher, head of defense at Palantir Technologies Inc. Palantir inked a deal with the Nuclear Company, a startup working on project development, the companies announced Thursday. The startup will pay data analytics firm Palantir $100 million over the next five years to develop artificial intelligence software specific to the nuclear industry. The goal is to help build nuclear plants cheaper, safer and most importantly, faster than China, Gallagher said. Of the 61 nuclear power plants currently under construction around the world, 26 are in Russia and 25 in China, BNEF reported this month. None are in the US. “The fact of the matter is we cannot win this strategic competition with China unless we revitalize our ability to build nuclear technology,” Gallagher said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. In the last 30 years, the US built only two plants, Vogtle Units 3 and 4. In addition to extensive regulation, one reason they took 15 years to build is because of the hundreds of thousands of documents workers must complete when building a new plant, Gallagher, a former US congressman, said.

Full report : Palantir signs a deal with The Nuclear Company under which the startup will pay Palantir $100M over five years to develop AI software for the nuclear industry.