A❤️450-word🧡under💛3-minute💚read
Those who read my posts known I’m an advocate for a renewed focus on nuclear. Several years ago when I took that position the naysayers offered the predictable response: too expensive and takes too long to build. They also cited previous “head fakes” of a nuclear resurgence.
All true. Then again, for most of my life Pluto was a planet. Now it’s not.
The cost and development times for nuclear remain unacceptable. However, dynamic is true of every new technology. And given we have ignored nuclear for decades, it should be viewed in that light.
Unquestionably, nuclear will play a critical role in achieving net-zero power generation, and climate advocates should be thankful. That’s because I believe that the proliferation of intermittent generation technologies that are reliant on weather conditions is somewhat a “house of cards.”
Several recent events have done nothing but add fuel to the nuclear fire.
Germany – the last major European holdout – has dropped its opposition to nuclear and has agreed to treat it on par with other renewables. That aligns Europe’s largest economy with EU policy. Austria is now the remaining holdout, but with France and Germany backing nuclear, Austria doesn’t matter.
In the U.S. the Tennessee Valley Authority became the first domestic utility to apply for a permit to build a small nuclear reactor (SMR). Optimistically, the Clinch River project could be operation in five years. That’s a stretch, but I certainly expect the U.S. to join Canada with operational SMRs well before 2035.
Lastly is the added momentum behind nuclear from artificial intelligence. Data centers need baseload power and cost is no object to big tech. SMRs couldn’t ask for a more favorable climate to prove the technology can achieve the necessary reductions in cost and development times.
In an April report Deloitte projected that by 2035 nuclear could provide 10% of the power demand for data centers. Overall, the company expects 35 to 65 GW of new nuclear generation within the next decade.
In the latest announced from a hypercsaler, Google plans to fund Elementl Power to bring 10 GW of nuclear capacity online by 2035. Exact terms and locations have not been announced, but “phase one” includes three 600 MW projects.
I’m no expert on nuclear technology, but what I do have extensive expertise in is technology development. What I can say is that strategy behind SMRs is the logical one for nuclear to follow.
The ability to centrally “mass produce” nuclear reactors will reduce overall costs. Combine that with a regulatory environment poised to streamline the permitting process, and the path to eliminate the two big objections to nuclear is clear.
Now the technology has to prove it can deliver.
#nuclear #nuclearpower #smr #elementl #googleai #netzero #tva