By Niko McMurrayDavid Gattie

The outlook for nuclear power is bright on the world stage. Global demand for clean nuclear energy is higher than we have ever seen. The U.S. and 20 allied nations pledged to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050 at COP28, and a multinational survey reaffirmed last year — the world wants new nuclear. 

In Washington, D.C., bipartisan support for nuclear energy has never been greater. Propelled by the House passing the ADVANCE Act 393-13 this month and momentum for passage in the Senate, Congress deserves some credit this year for working to help speed up the deployment of next-generation reactors, fueling hope for an American future powered by clean energy. 

This support is promising, but masks a concerning trend. While the U.S. leads the world in the development of innovative nuclear technologies, the U.S. has fallen behind China and Russia. As of May 2024, Russia and China collectively have 29 commercial reactors under construction. The U.S. has zero. 

The prospect of reinvigorating production in the U.S. is exciting, but we have to think bigger to realize the promise of the next generation of nuclear energy — and now is the moment to capitalize. So, how do we get it done?

Private companies need to secure the necessary investments and build the infrastructure required for their technologies. Interest in next-generation reactors is already high and is only expected to grow, so we need new sources of funding to meet the moment. Throughout the history of nuclear innovation, first movers have been critical to attaining the “proof of concept,” and new reactors are no different. Once the potential of these technologies is realized, the order book for energy users can follow, and more capital will be available to developers. 

Due to the need for more reliable energy, the nuclear industry is seeing significant interest from both traditional and non-traditional customers. Utilities continue to consider adding nuclear energy capacity, and data centers and industrial customers are also considering new nuclear. For example, the partnership between X-energy and Dow in Seadrift, Texas, demonstrates the diverse applications of nuclear energy, as the proposed reactor will replace retiring systems to produce clean energy for the chemical facility. With nuclear power, industrial companies can continue to utilize reliable and affordable energy for their operations, cleanly. The project came to fruition with the support of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), a prime example of how federal government and private industry partnerships can make advanced nuclear technology a reality. In addition to X-energy, the DOE is partnering with TerraPower, which just submitted its construction permit to the NRC, to build its first reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

To meet demand and compete in the market, the industry must build an order book to encourage commercial investment in new nuclear projects. Expanding to global customers bolsters the U.S. market and encourages international trade, but we cannot export technology we are not building here. With a diverse and more robust customer base, companies can attract significant investments while achieving cost reductions.

However, it is important to make sure that U.S. companies can compete on the global stage to counter the growing influence of Russia and China. Updates to civil nuclear export regulations, developing an export strategy and increasing access to financing from entities like the U.S. Export-Import Bank and International Development Finance Corporation will be critical. Partnering with allied nations and supporting the development of technical expertise in countries that are interested in building these new designs will be needed as well. 

Building a robust order book and increasing commitments from both domestic and international customers can help build momentum to commercialize next-generation facilities. The U.S. can finish what it started: ensuring the deployment of new nuclear projects will provide clean, reliable and affordable energy globally.

Niko McMurray is the Managing Director of International and Nuclear Policy at ClearPath.

Dr. David Gattie is an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering, a Senior Fellow at UGA’s Center for International Trade & Security and a member of the Nuclear Matters Advocacy Council. 

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.

Essay by Eric Worrall

MIT Innovation Fellow and former Biden economic advisor Brian Deese explaining why everyone should be doing more to help.

The Next Front in the War Against Climate Change

By Brian Deese

Clean-energy investment in America is off the charts—but it still isn’t translating into enough electricity that people can actually use.By Brian Deese

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Because even though unprecedented sums of money are flowing into clean energy, our current electricity system is failing to meet Americans’ demand for clean power. If we don’t fix it, the surge in investment will not deliver its full economic and planetary potential.

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For decades, the biggest obstacle to clean energy in the U.S. was insufficient demand. That is no longer the case. The problem now is the structure of our electricity markets: the way we produce and consume electricity in America. We need to fix that if we want the biggest clean-energy investment in history to actually get the job done.

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Many utilities, however, won’t prioritize installing batteries, and they won’t invest in solutions that let consumers do more with less energy. That’s becausethese programs lower utilities’ capital expenditures, which lowers the rates they charge consumers and, in turn, their profits. If utilities don’t get paid for innovating, they’re unlikely to do it.

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On a policy level, this isn’t rocket science. In Australia, households are paid for sending electricity back into the grid. Lo and behold, Australia today has the highest rate of rooftop solar panels per capita of any country. In the U.S., state legislatures and regulators in places as varied as Utah and Hawaii have figured out how to pay households to install batteries and send electricity back to the grid. Last year, Montana unanimously passed a law that gave utilities a financial incentive to use more advanced materials in their transmission lines. But these remain the exceptions to the rule.

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Shifting this approach will not happen without a new vocabulary and new coalitions. The climate movement must recognize that its primary target is no longer just Big Oil; it’s the regulatory barriers that keep clean energy from getting built and delivered efficiently to American homes. The movement also needs to pressure Big Tech companies, whose AI offerings are driving upenergy demands, to follow through on their lofty climate talk by supporting reform in the utility system as well.

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Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/climate-change-investment-utilities/678455/

According to his bio, Brian Deese is an innovation fellow at MIT, who served as director of the White House National Economic Council from 2021 to 2023.

How many times have we read or heard left wing politicians and academics whining others didn’t do enough to help?

Big Tech companies don’t want to invest in more grid capacity, they want co-located nuclear reactors, to minimise their exposure to the USA’s incompetently managed electricity grid.

Nobody is investing in batteries at anything like the required scale because batteries are too expensive. Battery capital costs make nuclear reactors look cheap.

Saving energy is a bad joke in the context of the AI revolution – you can have an AI powered future, or you can save energy, but you cannot have both.

As for citing Australia as an example, that is the biggest joke of the whole article. Citing the Australian grid as aspirational is an utter absurdity. An Australian state government just cut a deal to pay a single coal plant $225 million per year to stay open, in a desperate bid to stave off a total collapse.

Deep down I suspect Brian Deese knows his precious green energy revolution will not survive the AI revolution – which is likely why he devoted a paragraph to abusing tech giants.

The skyrocketing demand of the AI revolution is the final nail in the coffin of green energy. What we are watching now is its death throes.