Maria Korsnick addressed hundreds of attendees at the Nuclear Energy Assembly this June in Washington, D.C. She urged them to envision a world where nuclear energy is dominant.
“In this clean energy future, hundreds of reactors — from the existing models that we have today to advanced reactors both large and small — dot the landscape,” said Korsnick, who’s president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association.
Just a few years ago, such a future was almost unimaginable.
Natural gas has become cheaper over the past decade, leading to the early closing of nuclear power plants across the country.
In the past decade, influxes of funding from both the government and the private sector have resulted in major changes in the trajectory of the aging U.S. nuclear fleet. This development has become the driving force behind new nuclear technologies.
It remains true, however, that scaling up nuclear power faces many of the same old challenges.
In the United States, nuclear power is the largest source of zero-emission power.
Nuclear power is being appreciated more because of climate change. It is estimated that the nuclear industry contributes somewhere between one fifth and one-quarter of the U.S. electricity generated, according to the DOE, and is the biggest source of electricity that does not emit carbon dioxide directly into the atmosphere, although wind power briefly eclipsed it earlier this year for the first time in history.
Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the federal government opened a $6 billion fund to save older nuclear plants from closure. As part of that law, $2.477 billion was set aside for research and development into nuclear reactors and advanced technologies.
A national survey indicates that nearly half of all states plan to reduce carbon emissions from electricity generation with nuclear power.
Several, including New York, were already funding the maintenance of older plants. Governor Gavin Newsom has begun exploring ways to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant open despite California’s grid stability problems. The plant is otherwise scheduled to close by 2025.
Despite West Virginia’s fossil fuel production, nuclear power has recently been repealed in the state. Brandon Steele, a Republican delegate from a coal-producing district in southeastern Pennsylvania, said that diversifying energy production is beneficial to business and the environment.
Nuclear reactors are not present in West Virginia currently.To gain access to advanced nuclear technology that is currently in development, Steele said, it was important to get in early.
While moving forward, we ponder the following question. Is this something the American people can invest in with confidence or, is this just another disaster waiting to happen?
Citations.
Mcdermott, J. (2022, January 18). Majority of US states pursue nuclear power for emission cuts. AP NEWS. Retrieved June 30, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/climate-technology-business-nuclear-power-environment-and-nature-cfb21ab68a9e7005cc08873f2a5a7031
Outlook for energy. ExxonMobil. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2022, from https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/Energy-and-innovation/outlook-for-energy?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=XOM%2B%7C%2BCorp%2B%7C%2BELH%2B%7C%2BTraffic%2B%7C%2BNon%2BBrand%2B%7C%2BEnvironment%2B%7C%2BGlobal%2BEnergy%2B%7C%2BExact&utm_content=Non%2BBrand%2B%7C%2BEnergy%2BSources%2B%7C%2BCore%2B%7C%2B%2BExxon%2B%7C%2BNEW%2B2&utm_term=nuclear%2Benergy&ds_rl=1289360&gclid=CjwKCAjwk_WVBhBZEiwAUHQCmdfh07s5ylgusxa5Ybg2SjNvQCVWKRSfGcsry4074N9LiGFcYSDa0hoC-qwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Nuclear energy assembly. Nuclear Energy Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2022, from https://www.nei.org/conferences/nuclear-energy-assembly
Jonathon M. Poe 