Bill Gates on why his nuclear energy hopes shifted from China to the US

Bill Gates has long believed that nuclear energy is an important tool for reducing carbon emissions below levels that would be catastrophic to the planet. Microsoft’s cofounder in 2006 founded TerraPower, a startup developing next-generation nuclear reactors, and remains its chairman.

TerraPower had planned to build an experimental reactor in China, since China’s top-down government control and support for nuclear would enable it to happen faster than in the US. But the trade and political tensions between the US and China now make that unlikely, Gates conceded in a recent interview with Quartz. “It’s not likely that the US-China joint venture can survive the tumultuous nature of that relationship, because you need almost a decade of constant understanding that a large investment’s being made to create something that’s a global benefit,” Gates said.

In the video above, you can watch Gates discuss how he’s now focused on trying to reactivate US nuclear ambitions.