BRAVE MAG

By Valerie Volcovici

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey visit the Hill Air Force Base in Utah

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah, Feb 15 - The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday for the first time transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to ‌demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use.

The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to ‌fly one of the company's Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft — without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Under ​Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey were on the C-17 flight with the reactor and its components, and hailed the event as a breakthrough for U.S. nuclear energy and military logistics.

"This gets us closer to deploy nuclear power when and where it is needed to give our nation's warfighters the tools to win in battle," Duffey said.

President Donald Trump's administration sees small nuclear reactors as one ‌of several ways to expand U.S. energy production. Trump ⁠last May issued four executive orders aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment to meet growing demand for energy for national security and competitive AI advancements.

The Energy Department in December issued two grants to help ⁠accelerate development of small modular reactors.

Proponents of microreactors also have touted them as energy sources that can be sent to far-flung and remote places, offering an alternative to diesel generators which require frequent deliveries of fuel. But skeptics have argued that the industry has not proven that small ​nuclear reactors ​can generate power for a reasonable price.

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"There is no business case for ​microreactors, which — even if they work as designed — will ‌produce electricity at a far higher cost than large nuclear reactors, not to mention renewables like wind or solar," said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Energy Department plans to have three microreactors reach "criticality" — when a nuclear reaction can sustain itself — by July 4, Wright said.

The microreactor in Sunday's event, a little larger than a minivan, can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor. It will start operating in July ‌at 100 kilowatts and peak at 250 kilowatts this year before ramping up ​to full capacity, he said.

Valar hopes to start selling power on a test ​basis in 2027 and become fully commercial in 2028. ​Although private industry funds its own development of nuclear technology, it also needs the federal government "doing some ‌enabling actions to allow fuel fabrication here and uranium ​enrichment here," he said.

Fuel for Valar's ​reactor will be transported from the Nevada National Security site to the San Rafael facility, Wright told reporters.

However, even small generators result in a significant amount of radioactive waste, Lyman said. Other experts have said designers are not compelled to ​consider waste at inception, beyond a plan for ‌how it will be managed.

Although disposal of nuclear waste remains an unresolved issue, the Energy Department is in talks ​with a few states, including Utah, to host sites that could reprocess fuel or handle permanent disposal, Wright ​said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Sergio Non and Lincoln Feast.)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India is hosting anartificial intelligencesummit this week, bringing together heads of state, senior officials and tech executives to New Delhi for a five-day gathering highlighting the growing global importance of the technology.

Organizers said the India AI Impact Summit is the first such summit being held in the Global South to discuss the technology developed and dominated by wealthy companies based in rich countries. It comes at a pivotal moment as AI rapidly transforms economies, reshapes labor markets and raises questions around regulations, security and ethics.

From generative AI tools that can produce text and images to advanced systems used in defense, health care and climate modeling, AI has become a central focus for governments and corporations across the world.

The summit, previously held inFrance, theU.K.andSouth Korea, has evolved far beyond its modest beginnings as a meeting tightly focused on the safety of cutting-edgeAI systemsinto an all-purpose jamboree trade fair in which safety is just one aspect.

India aspires to be a rising AI power

India — the world's most populous nation and one of the fastest-growing digital markets — sees the summit as an opportunity to project itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the Global South.

Officials said the country's experience in building large-scale digital public infrastructure, including digital identity and payment platforms, offer a model for deploying AI at scale while keeping costs low.

"The goal is clear: AI should be used for shaping humanity, inclusive growth and a sustainable future," India's Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

The summit begins Monday and will be attended by 20 heads of state and government, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a session Thursday.

Google's Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm's CEO Cristiano Amon,OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman,Microsoft's President Brad Smith and AMI Labs Executive Chairman Yann LeCun are also expected to attend.

Indian executives are hoping the summit will reflect the country's recognition as an enabler of national capabilities, economic resilience and long-term capabilities.

"As India continues on the journey to become a developed nation by 2047, AI has a critical role to play in strengthening large scale systems, from energy and manufacturing to public infrastructure," said Sumant Sinha, the CEO of the NASDAQ-listed ReNew, a clean energy company.

Summit to adopt New Delhi declaration

Like previous editions, the India AI Impact Summit is not expected to result in a joint binding political agreement. It's more likely that the event could end with a non-binding pledge or declaration on goals for AI development.

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Last year's edition,the Paris AI Action Summit, was dominated byU.S. Vice President JD Vance's speechin which he rebuked European efforts to curb AI's risks bywarning global leaders and tech industry executivesagainst "excessive regulation" that could hobble the rapidly growingAI industry.

AI summits have evolved since thefirst meetingin November 2023, barely a year after the launch ofChatGPT, which stoked both excitement and fear about the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence.

Thatmeetingat a former code breaking base north of London was attended only by official delegations from 28 countries and the European Union, along with a small number of AI execs and researchers, and was focused on keeping AI safe and reining in its potentially catastrophic risks.

Ahead of the India meeting, a panel of experts released asecond annualsafety report on the risks posed by the most advanced AI systems, including through misuse, malfunctions and so-called systemic risks.

AI governance efforts are also underway elsewhere, including at theUnited Nations, which last year adopted a resolution to set up two key bodies on AI — a global forum and an independent scientific panel of experts.

"The whole point of this report is to build an international consensus on the state of the science regarding the emerging risks of AI," said Yoshua Bengio, a prominent scientist known as one of the"Godfathers of AI"who led the study. "It's really important that the world will continue to have a strong independent scientific evaluation of the risks."

Reskilling key to hedging AI impact on jobs

Like elsewhere, there have been concerns in India about AI's adverse effect on jobs across technology and allied sectors, but experts point to reskilling to hedge risks.

"There is a lot of genuine concern around this theme, and I don't want to underestimate this impact. But, from an Indian lens, emphasis is on re-skilling programs and as AI becomes much more mainstream, you will also see newer job roles coming up," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at Nasscom, a prominent body representing India's technology industry.

For 22-year-old Anirudh Singh, pursuing a master's in social work from Delhi University, AI makes it easier to prepare internship projects.

"I think AI is just reducing the tedious work that students generally had to do," said Singh.

Chan reported from London. Piyush Nagpal and Rishi Lekhi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

SINGAPORE, Singapore (AP) — Flying in and out of Singapore, home to Southeast Asia's busiest airport, will get slightly more expensive this year as the city state begins imposing a levy of between 75 cents to $32 per ticket to fund sustainable aviation fuel.

Singapore Aviation Fuel

The tax will support Singapore's growing use of thecleaner burning fuel, which is often made from used cooking oil or agricultural waste. The global aviation industry is encouraging its use as ittries to slashrising emissions that contribute toclimate changewithout altering current aircraft.

Southeast Asia is poised to become a hub for global production of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, as new facilities and policies launch across the region, while environmental backpedaling in the United States under President Donald Trump creates an opening in global fuel production.

Singapore has the region's largest SAF plant and is beginning construction of a next-generation facility this year, with set agreements to supply fuel to major carriers like JetBlue and Singapore Airlines. Thailand launched a brand-new SAF plant in Bangkok in 2025. Malaysia and Vietnam hit domestic production milestones last year and Indonesia, like Singapore, recently announced plans to expand current operations.

The industry is just getting started, said Tat Chuan Goh, with Aether Fuels, the Chicago-based fuel development company building Singapore's new plant. "But we do sense the momentum is clearly building up," he said.

Singapore sets its new levy

Singapore's levy will affect flights departing after Oct. 1 and sold after April 1 from Changi International Airport, which handled a record 70 million passengers last year.

Passengers will pay a surcharge based on their trips' distance and cabin. The lowest levy of 1 Singapore dollar (about 75 U.S. cents) will apply to economy flights within Southeast Asia. Those traveling in premium cabin flights to the Americas will pay the most, 41.60 Singapore dollars (about $32).

For cargo, the levy is based on distance travelled and weight. To ensure transparency, the tax will be shown on tickets and air cargo contracts.

Daniel Ng, chief sustainability officer at the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, said the levy will allow "all aviation users to do their part to contribute to sustainability at a cost which is manageable for the air hub."

Southeast Asia's fuel industry grows

With Southeast Asia's abundant access to fuel ingredients, like agricultural and forest waste, the region is sitting on a "pot of gold that can really be scaled up," said Goh with Aether Fuels.

Vietnam delivered domestically-made SAF mixes to local carriers like VietJet Air in 2025. Malaysia's first deliveries to local carriers like Malaysia Airlines and customers in Europe also took place last year.

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Indonesia plans to increase its domestic fuel production and others in the region, like the Philippines, are cutting red tape to entice fuel developers.

"We can, if managed responsibly, support competitive and scalable SAF production," said Aung Soe Moe, a senior officer for air transport for theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN estimates the region could produce 8.5 million barrels of SAF per day by 2050.

Kelvin Lee, who leads sustainability in the Asia-Pacific region for the International Air Transport Association, the leading group of global airlines, said it's "natural that people are paying quite a bit of attention to SAF production in this part the world."

"But we do still need quite a bit of government support to have that momentum continue," Lee said.

U.S. pullback slows global production

Aviation contributes about 2.5% of annual global carbon emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, which says emissions from aviation are growing faster than those from any other transportation industry.

Withaviation demandrising, the UN-backed International Civil Aviation Organization set a goal of zero net carbon emissions for 2050. Using SAF could cut about 65% of the industry's emissions, it says. That prompted some airlines and countries to set SAF mandates.

But there are doubts that SAF can scale up quickly enough, partly because of the Trump administration's reversal of clean energy efforts.

Global SAF production was steadily growing, with the U.S. output nearly doubling to a record last year. That was before Trumprolled back climate policiesdenting production that had surged under formerPresident Joe Biden.

The global growth of SAF production is forecast to slow for the first time since large-scale output began in 2018.

Preeti Jain, who leads IATA's net zero research, said the U.S. rollbacks are "definitely a topic of discussion." But she said "the good thing is that those policy incentives have not totally evaporated, but there is some period of uncertainty."

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