The case for nuclear energy as the foundation of the AI revolution - and our future
In The Smiling Atom: How We Learned to Love Nuclear Energy, and Why You Should, Too, physicist-entrepreneur Stefano Buono and journalist Peter Vanham argue that the AI-driven "fourth industrial revolution" depends on a nuclear energy renaissance. Combining science, history, business strategy, and personal narrative, their dual perspective reframes nuclear technology as a future-facing solution for clean energy, medical innovation, and broad-based prosperity.
The Smiling Atom weaves two distinct threads: Buono's scientific journey from a decade of research at CERN with Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia to founding pharmaceutical startup Advanced Accelerator Applications, sold to Novartis for $3.9 billion, and now leading next-generation reactor company newcleo; alongside Vanham's evolution from a nuclear-skeptic to informed believer. Together they deliver technical authority and narrative credibility.
Readers will also discover:
- How nuclear energy can be a solution to the massive and growing power demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure - without driving up prices for everyone else
- The science of nuclear waste transmutation and next-generation reactor designs that address longstanding safety and environmental concerns
- Buono's path from CERN physicist to founding a pharmaceutical startup sold to Novartis for $3.9 billion
- How well-known anti-nuclear movements in Europe and North America shaped public opinion and why that consensus is now shifting across society - and especially Gen Z
- The role nuclear medicine plays in healthcare innovation and why energy and medical applications share common scientific foundations
Written for business, finance, policy, climate, and technology audiences in Europe and the United States, The Smiling Atom offers a persuasive, evidence-based argument for readers seeking to understand why nuclear energy has reemerged as central to economic growth, clean power, and technological progress.
