--- title: Why America Abandoned Nuclear Power description: How nuclear power could come back, improving the military for women in combat and more. canonical: https://time.com/4242997/nuclear-power-abandoned/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-01T17:01:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:19.798Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why America Abandoned Nuclear Power og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4242997/nuclear-power-abandoned/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why America Abandoned Nuclear Power twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why America Abandoned Nuclear Power by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 1, 2016 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 1, 2016 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Nuclear power — practically priced out of the U.S. — could make a cost-effective comeback.**](http://www.vox.com/2016/2/29/11132930/nuclear-power-costs-us-france-korea) By Brad Plumer in Vox **2\.** [**Here’s how to make the military better for women in combat.**](http://motto.time.com/4232409/military-women-in-combat/) By Jessie Van Amburg in Motto **3\.** [**The Syrian refugee crisis is the perfect chance to fix global aid.**](http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/02/smarter-assistance-syrian-refugees-160222123032478.html) By Yezid Sayigh in Al-Jazeera **4\.** [**The next mobile payment platform might be your car.**](http://www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/2016/02/29/honda-bets-that-cars-are-the-next-mobile-payment-platform/#60435bbb4d18) By Liane Yvkoff in Forbes **5\.** [**This grocery store doesn’t have any cashiers — just an app.**](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bf2639e442a444768caafa2a7fb78984/swedens-1st-unmanned-food-store-all-you-need-phone) By Jan M. Olsen at the Associated Press  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4242997/nuclear-power-abandoned/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4242997/nuclear-power-abandoned/"},"headline":"Why America Abandoned Nuclear Power","datePublished":"2016-03-01T17:01:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:19.798Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4242997/nuclear-power-abandoned/","keywords":["Innovation","apps","cars","Syrian refugees"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4242997/nuclear-power-abandoned/","name":"Why America Abandoned Nuclear Power"}}]}] ```