Yesterday I shared concerns about too-slow SMR deployment at a NASEO - National Association of State Energy Officials energy security bootcamp. Recently John Wagner, the director of my lab, fully articulated the need for speed:
➡ "The only way we will get better at developing and deploying nuclear power plants is by doing it. We need to build. And with every new plant, we will learn. We will evolve. We will build reactors that are more economical and come online faster. We need to approach this with a sense of urgency. Even with extensions on the licenses of our current reactor fleet, time is short. We need rapid deployment to power our grid, clean transportation, manufacturing, and industrial applications."
Some say we don't need nuclear to support a clean firm baseload (I don't believe that's a defensible position). Some say it's been too expensive in the past (and they are quite right). But countries around the world and companies in the US are imploring us to go faster. As a smart, senior member of DOE's Office of Policy shared yesterday, to meet rising demand, we've gone fast in the past and we'll do it again. I hope she's right, and not just for nuclear, but for transmission, wind/solar/storage, and all of it designed to operate in temperature regimes warmer or far warmer than we've ever experienced.
Nuclear, even new nuclear if it can be built more affordably, will always cost more than renewables. But in the future, when as NERC keeps warning us, blackouts and brownouts are longer and more common, we will begin to put a dollar value on resilience. And that's going to make a big difference in how we look at nuclear IMHO. We will build it and be glad we did.
Sarah Neumann Megan Levy Chris Nelder Mike O'Boyle Christopher Hamel Katie MacDonald Ethan Huffman Shayle Kann Yasir Arafat Emily Nichols Christine King
INL Director John Wagner discusses the crucial role of near-term nuclear deployment as our nation stands on the cusp of a new era of nuclear energy and renewed U.S. global leadership.
Significant global expansion of nuclear energy can help address today's unprecedented energy and security challenges driven by hyperscale data centers and electrification.
Read more ➡ https://lnkd.in/gRNVgiHs
Energy Central #nuclear #energy #research #cleanEnergy #advancedNuclear #Idaho
Consultant/Psycholoog Assessment en Ontwikkeling
3moCongratulations Nuclear Industry Association with this milestone! Keep up the good work towards a world with far more nuclear energy facilities so that the earth can get a fair chance to cool down.