World Bank May Drop Ban on Funding Nuclear Power, President Says
Article content
(Bloomberg) — The head of the World Bank said he asked the lender’s board to reverse its long-standing policy against funding nuclear power projects, saying the technology offers a green option for poor countries.
Article content
“The good news is the board has come together and said they’re willing to discuss” the change, World Bank President Ajay Banga said Thursday at an event in Washington, adding that he expects the move to be included in a broader energy policy proposal expected in June 2026.
Article content
Banga’s comments come at a time when governments and companies are eying more nuclear power for clean, stable sources of electricity. Forecast for power demand surged on the back of artificial intelligence use, and a boom in data centers has stoked even more interest in atomic energy.
Among developing nations, those in Southeast Asia that are heavily reliant on fossil fuels like coal have for the first time expressed interest in having nuclear power. The Philippines is aiming to have its first nuclear power plant by 2032, Vietnam is considering a plan and Indonesia put together a government committee to create a strategy to build a full-scale nuclear power plant.
The Washington-based development lender, which has a core goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting prosperity, funds fossil fuel and renewable power projects but has a ban on funding nuclear.
“Small nuclear reactors could be transformative,” he said in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington.
The policy reform proposal will seek to encompass all kinds of affordable and accessible energy, Banga said, including natural gas, nuclear, geothermal, hydropower and others.
Since its founding near the end of World War II, the bank has only funded one nuclear project, a plant in southern Italy in 1959.
—With assistance from Shoko Oda.
(Updates story with background information from third paragraph)
Share this article in your social network