21 July 2022, Bavaria, Essenbach: Water vapor rises behind sunflowers from the cooling system of the nuclear power plant (NPP) Isar 2. Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Nuclear energy is at an inflection point. Early exuberance about its potential was undercut by a series of devastating and dangerous accidents: Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979; Chornobyl in Ukraine in 1986; and Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011. But now, thanks to new technology and the increasingly urgent need to fight climate change, nuclear energy is getting a second shot at becoming a prominent part of the global energy grid. That’s because nuclear energy generation does not create any of the dangerous greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In a panel discussion at the United Nations on Tuesday, a collection of nuclear energy leaders from around the world gathered to discuss the scope of that renaissance and why it’s so critical that the industry work together to ensure gold-standard safety measures are adopted everywhere. A nuclear accident anywhere has the potential to upset the most major momentum the nuclear industry has had in decades.
$1 trillion in expected global demand
U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said that nuclear energy represents 20% of the United States’ baseload power, and 50% of its no-carbon-emissions power. “And that’s just from the fleet that we have today without the other additions that we are hoping to see.” Future nuclear reactors and plants will almost certainly use different technology from the current standard, as both U.S. labs and private companies are funding research into more efficient reactors that are cheaper to build and generate less waste. Granholm mentioned, as an example, the advanced nuclear reactor that TerraPower, Bill Gates’ nuclear innovation company, is installing in a former coal town in Wyoming. Demand for advanced nuclear reactors will be worth about $1 trillion globally, Granholm said, according to an estimate from the Department of Energy. That includes the jobs to building those reactors and all the associated supply chains that will need to ramp up to support the industry, Granholm said. “Bottom line is spreading advanced nuclear energy is a priority for us,” Granholm said. “Of course, these technologies all have to begin and end with nuclear safety and security.” The change in sentiment surrounding nuclear energy has happened quite quickly, said Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
A photograph shows dogs passing by a Ferris wheel in background in the ghost town of Pripyat near the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on May 29, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Dimitar Dilkoff | AFP | Getty Images
“Until just a few years ago, nuclear would not be present, and perhaps not even welcome” at the annual COP conferences, which stands for Conference of the Parties and provides an opportunity for global leaders to discuss climate change. “The IAEA has moved quite fast from almost an intruder into a very welcomed participant in this dialogue where nuclear has a place.” The next COP conference will be in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November, followed by one at Dubai Expo City in the United Arab Emirates. The IAEA is planning to be part of both of these conferences. “The mere fact that we are talking about COPs with nuclear in Egypt, and in the Gulf, in and by itself is telling you a lot of what is happening and how we are changing and the possibilities that we have and that could have been almost unforeseeable just a few years ago,” Grossi said.
Safety first