The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) recently released a report entitled “Life Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Options” (UNECE Report; Report). The report analyzes the environmental profiles of the full lifecycle of various technologies in order to evaluate their “all in” environmental costs—such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), human toxicity, water use, and other environmental and health metrics of different electricity sources—including wind, solar, coal, gas, hydro, and nuclear. In a finding that may be very surprising to many, but likely not to those in the nuclear field, nuclear had some of the smallest impacts on the environment out of all the electricity sources analyzed.
Click here to read the entire article.Kairos Power signed a big deal with a tech giant and got approval to build its next test facility.
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter.
This is a busy time of year for all of us, and that’s certainly true in the advanced nuclear industry.
MIT Technology Review released our list of 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch less than two months ago. Since then, awardee Kairos Power has had three big announcements about its progress toward building next-generation nuclear reactors.
Last week, the company (Kairos) announced it received a construction permit for the next iteration of its system, Hermes 2. This plant will share a location with Hermes, and it will include the infrastructure to transform heat to electricity. That makes it the first electricity-producing next-generation nuclear plant to get this approval in the US.
Click here to read the entire article at MIT Technology Review
New Small Modular Reactor agreements are part of Amazon’s
plan to transition to carbon-free energy.
As we continue on our path to net-zero carbon, we recently announced that we matched all of the electricity consumed by our global operations with 100% renewable energy—seven years ahead of our 2030 goal. As the energy needs of our business and customers continue to grow, we’re continuing to invest in renewables while also finding additional sources of carbon-free energy that can both help power our operations and bring new sources of energy to the grid. Nuclear power is one part of that mix—it can be brought online at scale, and has a decades-long record of providing a reliable source of safe carbon-free energy for communities around the world.
In a deal that marks the first corporate agreement to deploy multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) in the U.S., Kairos Power, and Google have signed a Master Plant Development Agreement to facilitate the development of a 500-MW fleet of molten salt nuclear reactors by 2035 to power Google’s data centers. The first reactor is expected to be operational by 2030.
The agreement positions Alameda, California–based Kairos Power, developer of the 140-MWe fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR), to develop, build, and operate a series of advanced reactor power plants. Kairos will sell the plants’ energy, ancillary services, and environmental attributes to Google under power purchase agreements (PPAs).
- On the sidelines of Climate Week in New York City, major banks, government representatives and industry executives recognized the role that nuclear energy can play in the global energy transition.
- Nuclear energy was included in the historic outcome of the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement.
- Improving access to financing can help unlock nuclear energy's potential for significant decarbonization for zero-emission power and heat.
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, nations endorsing the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy launched at COP28 in 2023 were joined by 14 financial institutions who expressed support for the call to action to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
Opinion by AdamVerdin
August 6, 2024
As a South San Luis Obispo County resident and business owner who is interested in public safety, our local economy, water resiliency, and state electrical power capacity, I recently visited Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant for the first time.
I was impressed by their adherence to a culture of safety. My experience as a professional pilot has taught me that safety largely involves methodical compliance to a good process, and training to have the capacity to respond to a variety of situations.
AI's breakneck adoption rate is drawing more energy than the US electrical grid can sustain. AI host companies are hoping to nuclear power plants can help meet their energy needs.
As data centers grow to run larger artificial intelligence (AI) models to feed a breakneck adoption rate, the electricity needed to power vast numbers of GPU-filled servers is skyrocketing.
Lawmakers took historic action on clean energy last month, and hardly anyone seems to have noticed.
Congress passed a bill to help reinvigorate the anemic U.S. nuclear industry, with the support of President Biden and 88 senators.
The bill, known as the Advance Act, is precisely the kind of move the government should be taking to fight climate change. It shows that large bipartisan majorities can help protect the planet without giving in to the endless politicking that has killed so many energy reforms in the past.
Click here to read the article at enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com
On-demand around-the-clock power, the kind that an advanced nuclear reactor can provide, is the only way to decarbonize the world's electric grids, Bill Gates tells Axios.
Why it matters: The Microsoft co-founder has invested more than $1 billion in reactor developer TerraPower to build a new type of American nuclear energy.
By Andres Picon
"The bipartisan nuclear energy package had a turbulent path to passage. Climate and economic benefits helped secure support."
"Almost every senator present supported legislation Tuesday to encourage nuclear energy development."
In what has become an exceedingly rare phenomenon, lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week reached across the aisle and coalesced around a piece of energy legislation to send it to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The support was resounding. The sweeping nuclear energy bill known as the “ADVANCE Act” sailed through the Senate as part of S. 870, the “Fire Grants and Safety Act,” on an 88-2 vote Tuesday, just over a month after the package garnered more than 390 votes in the House.
By Bill Gates
Visiting the site of a historic new power plant
Today I’m in the town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, to celebrate the latest step in a project that’s been more than 15 years in the making: designing and building a next-generation nuclear power plant. I’m thrilled to be here after all this time—because I’m convinced that the facility will be a win for the local economy, America’s energy independence, and the fight against climate change.
It’s called the Natrium plant, and it was designed by TerraPower, a company I started in 2008. When it opens (potentially in 2030), it will be the most advanced nuclear facility in the world, and it will be much safer and produce far less waste than conventional reactors.
A nuclear artificial intelligence company will use the world's fastest supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to train its AI tool, which could save the heavily regulated nuclear power sector millions of dollars and untold hours of work time.
Atomic Canyon, a California-based startup introducing AI to nuclear power plants, will use the Frontier supercomputer in partnership with ORNL.
A month after the US offered $1.5 billion to restart one shuttered nuclear power plant, there’s a growing sense among officials in the industry and government that it may not be the last.
“There are a couple of nuclear power plants that we probably should, and can, turn back on,” said Jigar Shah, director of the US Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office.
Earth Is a Nuclear Planet revolutionizes how we view nuclear power. It demystifies with wit and clarity, dismantling myths with captivating facts. Backed by leading scientists, this book illuminates complex science and highlights the potential of nuclear energy for a carbon-negative future.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued new guidance documents to facilitate the licensing process for non-light water reactor designs. The guidance is expected to significantly reduce the regulatory uncertainty for new reactor concepts that don’t fit the mold of conventional reactor technologies.
Nuclear power, which has 20,000 reactor years of experience across the world, has five distinct advantages.
1. From cradle to grave, nuclear energy has the lowest carbon footprint and needs fewer materials and less land than other electricity sources...
2. Uranium in the earth's crust and oceans is more abundant than gold, platinum and other rare metals...
3. Nuclear power doesn’t rely on the weather...
Click to read the entire article at World Economic Forum
(Scroll down to: 5 reasons we cannot ignore nuclear energy)
March 4 (Reuters) - International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has asked global development banks and their government shareholders to fund new nuclear energy projects, stating that failing to do so could delay the energy transition, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief told the Financial Times in an interview that lack of funding for emissions-free nuclear energy by multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank was "out of step" with the wishes of most of their shareholders, adding that there has been a "sea-change" in the outlook on nuclear power due to the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine.
Milestone in startup testing marks first generation of electricity from Unit 4
ATLANTA, March 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power announced today that Unit 4 at the Vogtle nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Georgia, has achieved another major milestone in startup testing by generating electricity and successfully synchronizing and connecting to the electric grid for the first time. This milestone follows initial criticality, reached on February 14, when operators safely started the nuclear reaction inside the reactor, generating nuclear heat to produce steam.
Connecting to the electric grid is part of ongoing startup testing for Vogtle Unit 4. Now, operators will continue to raise reactor power for generation of electricity while performing tests at various power levels, ultimately raising power to 100 percent. Once all startup testing is successfully completed and the unit is available for reliable dispatch, Vogtle Unit 4 will enter commercial operation.
Click for more information: crweworld.com and Georgia Power
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyzing potential impacts of the Department’s proposed action to acquire high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to securing a domestic supply of HALEU, a key material needed for most U.S. advanced reactors to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over current nuclear energy technologies. HALEU is not currently available from domestic suppliers, which could significantly impact the deployment of advanced reactors.
Click here to read that complete article at The Office of Nuclear Energy
Exciting new technological breakthroughs are fueling a nuclear power renaissance around the world. It’s about time. The need for more energy is acute. High tech has an immense appetite for power. The cloud today consumes twice as much energy as the entire nation of Japan. As developing nations grow, so will their need to provide electricity for hundreds of millions of modern houses and much else.
This is why demand for nuclear power is mushrooming. More policymakers are finally facing the fact that generating nuclear power is safer than producing fossil fuels and renewables. It is also cleaner, producing no emissions of carbon dioxide.
Scaling Nuclear Energy for a Sustainable and Secure Net Zero World
IBNI is a conceptual new multilateral international financing institution (IFI). The Bank will provide financing and other support for qualified nuclear energy projects within its member countries. IBNI's main mission will be to support a Sustainable Net Zero World through the global expansion of nuclear energy.
13 December 2023
The 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) has ended in Dubai with a Global Stocktake - unanimously agreed by all parties - calling for a transitioning away from fossil fuels and an acceleration of zero- and low-emission technologies, including nuclear.
The text of the agreement says that the parties recognise that limiting global warming to 1.5°C "with no or limited overshoot requires deep, rapid and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions of 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 relative to the 2019 level and reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050".
It calls for a transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, "in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net-zero by 2050 in keeping with the science". In addition, it says there should be an acceleration in zero and low-emission technologies, "including, inter alia, renewables, nuclear, abatement and removal technologies such as carbon capture and utilisation and storage, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors, and low-carbon hydrogen production".
An introduction to nuclear radiation and its impacts on human health and Earth’s environment
Ron Gester, retired geologist & physician, 2023.
Earth is a nuclear planet … and nuclear energy is essential for our existence on Earth.
Without Earth's molten core, life as we know it would not exist. Earth is protected from extreme levels of cosmic and solar radiation by a geomagnetic field generated by the rotation of Earth’s molten core. It rotates because of a combination of convection, due to heat, and Earth's rotation. The heat is generated in part from the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium isotopes. [Johnston, 2011] This heat also contributes to convection in the mantle which drives plate tectonics and continental drift. Nuclear energy is a natural and essential force on Earth. Nuclear fission reactors have occurred naturally in Earth’s geologic past. Rock formations in Oklo, Gabon, W. Africa reveal that self-sustaining nuclear reactions ran in these formations for hundreds of thousands of years starting about 1.7 billion years ago.
By Rep. John Curtis
...the United States has been actively reducing its carbon footprint while ensuring energy security. However, in our journey toward a cleaner, greener future, one often-overlooked but incredibly powerful solution stands out: nuclear energy.
Nuclear power is a critical component of our clean energy future. Its ability to generate large amounts of electricity with minimal greenhouse gas emissions makes it an invaluable part of our energy grid.
Nuclear powered refineries can use seawater to make net zero synfuels, ending electric vehicle rationale.
Synthesizing fuels with carbon from seawater CO2 and energy from nuclear power will let our US economy continue to use vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel combustion engines, but with net zero CO2 emissions.
The nuclear industry has the solutions to assist end-users - from the shipping industry to data centres - in reducing their carbon emissions and meeting their decarbonisation goals, panellists at World Nuclear Symposium 2023 said.
The White House, June 8, 2023
Today the United States and the United Kingdom are announcing the Atlantic Declaration for a Twenty-First Century U.S.-UK Economic Partnership to ensure that our unique alliance is adapted, reinforced, and reimagined for the challenges of this moment.
One of many Joint Actions will concern nuclear power cooperation.
Launching a Civil Nuclear Partnership. Building on our unique economic and security relationship, and recognizing our complementary capabilities, we are launching a civil nuclear partnership overseen by senior officials in both governments. The JAG will also be mobilized to set near-term priorities for joint action to encourage the establishment of new infrastructure and end-to-end fuel cycle capabilities by 2030 in both continents, and substantially minimize reliance on Russian fuel, supplies, and services. Our joint activity and leadership will support and facilitate the safe, secure, and sustainable international deployment of advanced, peaceful nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, in accordance with the highest non-proliferation standards and consistent with a 1.5-degree Celsius limit on global warming. These priorities will form the basis of a Joint Standing Committee on Nuclear Energy Cooperation (JSCNEC), which is designed to deliver on shared commitments by the end of the year and serve as an enduring bilateral forum to advance shared policy goals across existing engagement mechanisms, including near-term actions identified through the JAG, and facilitate exchanges on new and evolving technical and policy developments regarding nuclear energy.
Build Nuclear Now calls for Congress to amend the mission of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recognize the value of nuclear energy as a critical technology for addressing climate change, reducing pollution, and enabling U.S. energy security.
We Need an NRC That Not Just Gets Out of the Way, But Leads.
The Breakthrough Institute has long pointed to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inefficiency as a barrier to advanced reactors and a heavy burden for the plants that are running today. But now the old-line nuclear establishment is saying so, too.
With nearly a quarter of the U.S. coal-fired fleet scheduled to retire by 2029, replacing retiring coal power plants with advanced nuclear, specifically small modular reactors (SMR), has been put forth as a strategy to maintain local employment and economic opportunities for existing energy workers and communities, while simultaneously pursuing national climate goals. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) recent and groundbreaking certification of the country’s first SMR design pushes the technology closer to maturity. As SMRs shift toward commercial deployment, identifying the existing opportunities and hurdles is vital to create a pathway for future coal-to-nuclear transition projects.
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
NUCLEAR NOW takes viewers on a mind-opening journey with legendary director Oliver Stone as he reveals the true history of nuclear energy and its potential to solve climate change. The looming climate crisis remains unresolved, and the volume of carbon-free electricity needed over the next 30 years is almost unimaginable. This film aims to remove the fears associated with nuclear energy and highlight the sustainability and affordability it can bring in the pursuit of restoring the world’s ecosystems and economies.
In Theaters April 28, 2023. Learn more at https://www.nuclearnowfilm.com/
Several months ago, I asked California State Senator Anthony Portantino's office -- and California Assemblywoman Laura Friedman's office, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Lynn Barger's office, and Congressman Adam Schiff's office, and Senator Dianne Feinstein's office, and Senator Alex Padilla's office, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's office -- for a report of a comprehensive quantitative system-engineering life-cycle analysis of an all-renewable energy system. Nobody sent a report. I suspect it doesn't exist. But nobody was polite enough to reply “Sorry, we don’t have such a report.”
It’s not environmentalists—it’s the nuclear-power industry itself.
Kairos Power’s new test facility is on a parched site a few miles south of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, airport. Around it, desert stretches toward hazy mountains on the horizon. The building looks like a factory or a warehouse; nothing about it betrays the moonshot exercise happening within.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Ontario Power Generation, SNC-Lavalin and Aecon Group signed a contract to deploy a BWRX-300 small modular reactor at OPG’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site in Clarington, Ontario.
About 20% of the world's population has no access to safe drinking water, and this number will increase as the population continues to grow and global freshwater sources continue to decline. The worst-affected areas are the arid and semiarid regions of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/SC/images/WWDR2015_03.pdf" aria-label="UNESCO has reported">UNESCO has reported that the freshwater shortfall worldwide will rise to 500 trillion gallons/yr by 2025. They expect water wars to break out in the near-future. The https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/01/why-world-water-crises-are-a-top-global-risk/" aria-label="World Economic Forum">World Economic Forum says that shortage of fresh water may be the primary global threat in the next decade.
Congress has passed a series of bills over the past four years supporting the development and deployment of “advanced” nuclear reactor designs, which are markedly different from those currently in commercial operation. Energized by billions of dollars in funding through the Department of Energy, a sprawl of experimental efforts and technology demonstration projects are now underway.
Click to read the entire article at the American Institute of Physics (aip.org)
Heard on Morning Edition
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Kathryn Huff, an official at the Department of Energy, about the future of nuclear energy in the United States.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: President Biden arrives in Egypt this morning to deliver remarks at the U.N. Climate Conference. Here at home, the U.S. is taking action to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels in the energy sector. But is it enough to combat the worst effects of climate change? This is the first of several conversations that we're going to feature on the show about America's climate agenda. Here's my co-host, Leila Fadel, with Kathryn Huff of the U.S. Department of Energy, talking about the role of nuclear power.
KATHRYN HUFF: I think nuclear energy is definitely part of the answer, but it's going to take every low-carbon energy source we have available to us to meet the kinds of challenges that climate change has put in front of us. There's no question that it'll require renewables and carbon capture and sequestration, and it will require nuclear, and quite a lot of all of them.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: What about safety? I mean, I think when people who aren't familiar with nuclear energy - everybody will still know Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Click here to listen to the 7-minute audio or read the transcript.
Nuclear power, climate change, and sustainable development. Investor and philanthropist Bill Gates speaks with the IAEA in an exclusive interview ahead of the IAEA International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century, to be held from 26 to 28 October 2022 in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a record of decision (ROD) to build a sodium-cooled fast test reactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). If appropriated by Congress, the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) would be the first fast spectrum test reactor to operate in the United States in ne
arly three decades.
The VTR project would help modernize U.S. nuclear energy research and development infrastructure and dramatically accelerate the technology development for current and next-generation reactors.
The U.S. will need both existing and new advanced reactors to meet the nation’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Last week, BP released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy and the report shows, yet again, that electricity is the world’s most important and fastest-growing form of energy.
In 2021, global electricity generation grew by a record 1,577 terawatt-hours, an increase of 6.2 percent over 2020. For perspective, last year’s increase in electricity production was greater than the electricity output of France, Germany and Britain combined. The surge in electricity generation — nearly half of which happened in China — reflects the jump in demand for power as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click here to read the article at thehill.com
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released its https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/doe_fy2023.pdf">Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Budget request in April. The request includes $1.7 billion for the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) and is one of the highest asks ever for NE. This will allow the office to act swiftly on funding activities to support emerging technologies and improvements to the nuclear fuel cycle.
Click here to read the article at energy.gov, Office of Nuclear Energy
Oklo Inc has become the first developer to run tests at Argonne National Laboratory's new Thermal Hydraulic Experimental Test Article (THETA) capability. The tests will support the licensing of liquid metal fast reactor designs.
Read the article at World Nuclear News
The Strategic Capabilities Office is considering engineering designs by BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, and X-energy, LLC. One design will be selected and announced this spring.
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon today announced that Idaho National Labs will build and initially operate a type of mobile “nuclear microreactor” designed to help power its ever-more-electrified military machine.
Project Pele, a project under the Strategic Capabilities Office, will be the first electricity-generating Generation IV nuclear reactor built in the US, following Chinese success in the field last year. The US version is designed to deliver one to five megawatts of electrical power for a minimum of three years, according to the press release.
Read the entire article at breakingdefense.com
(There isn't a threat from Ukraine's nuclear power plants.)
...a podcast from https://www.decouplepodcast.org with host Jesse Freeston at jessefreeston.com
How dangerous are Ukraine's nuclear power plants? Could our wartime atomic fears be critically misplaced? Jesse watches WAY too much coverage of the fighting around Ukraine's reactors and speaks to some proper experts about what he sees.
Some of the topics covered:
- Could Ukraine's Current Reactors Explode Like Chernobyl?
- Health Effects of Chernobyl
- Radioactive Cloud Over Europe?
- Could We See Another Fukushima?
Watch the podcast at Decouple STUDIOS
...with Dr. Chris Keefer and Kalev Kallemets, Mar 6, 2022
Dr. Keefer is an Emergency Medicine physician, pro-nuclear activist, the senior editor of Decouple Media, and host of the Decouple podcast.
Kalev Kallemets, CEO of Fermi Energia, joins Dr. Keefer to reflect on energy, geopolitics, and SMRs in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Recorded on February 24, 2022. The current geopolitical situation with Russia and Ukraine is fast-moving, and this interview does not reflect the most recent developments.
Click here to listen to the podcast at Decouplemedia.org
Click here to read the transcript
Investing in the next generation of nuclear reactors could give the world an important tool for reducing carbon emissions.
As the world’s climate continues to warm, more than 50 nations have pledged to achieve “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury. That means producing radically lower levels of these gases in the decades ahead while removing from the atmosphere the equivalent of what we do produce.
Ron Gester, a co-founder and board member of SCGI, has been researching and writing about the need for nuclear energy in our fight against climate change and global poverty for many years. In his most recent paper, he shares his personal journey with hopes of reaching those who are opposed or not yet informed. It distills years of research into a compelling story and a thoroughly documented resource.
Excerpts:
"I was alarmed by the spread of wind turbines and solar panels. Ridgelines and seascapes were becoming industrialized, fields were being fenced off to protect panels, trees were being cut down because they cast shadows … and the transition was just in its infancy."
"I concluded that nuclear “waste” was, in fact, a massive energy resource that will probably benefit future generations."
"I learned that ionizing radiation was a relatively weak carcinogen [1,2] and my heightened fear of it was the result of fiction, marketing, and cold-war propaganda. [3] Nuclear energy ranked among the safest (per TWh) and cleanest (per GWh) forms of energy. [4]"
Why I Changed My Mind
Ron Gester, retired geologist and physician August 2021
In the 1970s, I marched in opposition to nuclear power plants. In 2008, I began to realize that I knew a lot about nuclear energy … that just wasn’t true. When I discovered how wrong I had been, I became obsessed with the quality of my information. I wanted to promote options for fighting climate change and global poverty that were supported by rigorous science and math. David MacKay’s book, Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air, showed how. [1] After much effort, I concluded that nuclear energy was one of those options – perhaps the most important one – since clean energy is essential for fighting both climate change and global poverty. I realized that while other forms of clean energy were important, they would not be sufficient. What follows is a summary of why I changed my mind.
Generation IV nuclear reactors are being developed through an international cooperation of 14 countries—including the United States.
The U.S. Department of Energy and its national labs are supporting research and development on a wide range of new advanced reactor technologies that could be a game-changer for the nuclear industry. These innovative systems are expected to be cleaner, safer, and more efficient than previous generations.
- Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor
- Very High-Temperature Reactor
- Molten Salt Reactor
Advanced nuclear technologies can propel the world toward our climate goals by providing affordable, zero-carbon electricity and heat; supporting the growth of renewable energy sources; and supplying clean energy for water desalination, hydrogen production, and other processes that will be vital in creating a low-carbon economy.
Today, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urged President Biden to preserve the United States’ civil nuclear fleet and prevent further plant closures. Chairman Manchin also highlighted that nuclear energy is critical to providing a reliable power grid, reducing carbon emissions, and addressing climate change.
One evening in June 2011, Masaharu Tsubokura went to bed and found he couldn’t close his left eye. His face was paralyzed, and for a few weeks the doctor who had spent months counseling residents displaced by a massive nuclear disaster was himself a patient.
The paralysis was temporary. But the stress that caused it has been a constant in Tsubokura’s life since he volunteered in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, days after the triple catastrophe that rocked it on 11 March 2011: a magnitude 9 earthquake, a tsunami that rose up to 40 meters, and multiple meltdowns and explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. What was meant to be a short volunteer stint giving health checks to evacuees became a career that has lasted 10 years and counting.
By Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow for The New Yorker
February 19, 2021
"One of the county’s major employers was the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, situated on the coastline outside the city. Jobs there were stable and well-paying. But Diablo Canyon is a nuclear facility—it consists of two reactors, each contained inside a giant concrete dome—and Hoff, like many people, was suspicious of nuclear power . . .
She considered herself an environmentalist and took it for granted that environmentalism and nuclear power were at odds."
Click to read the article at The New Yorker
by Llewellyn King at forbes.com
If you want to design a car, there are certain constants like four wheels. And for a car, you can draw on millions of design hours that are readily accessible, and trillions of years of operating experience.
If you want to design a nuclear reactor, there are almost no limitations. In fact, there are a mind-boggling number of design possibilities.
Hundreds of reactor designs have made it onto paper and the constants are few. You’ll need a fissile fuel, or a fertile fuel element with a fissile trigger, but otherwise there are no limits. Not all that is known about reactor design is accessible because it is either proprietary or classified.
The reactor fuel, the moderator, the size, the operating characteristics are all wide-open choices. More: For each reactor type, there are huge variations. Choosing an optimum design going forward is the challenge.
Leaders of World Nuclear Association working groups participated in a webinar yesterday to highlight some of the issues of key importance to the global nuclear industry. These include harmonisation in reactor licensing; energy market design; safety regulation; and, new applications of nuclear energy. The Industry Gamechangers webinar was a pre-event to the Association's Strategic eForum to be held next week.
How can humanity deal with the dual challenges of climate change and the soaring demand for energy in developing countries? Tom 
Russia's first floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, being moved to its shoreside berthBlees, president of the Science Council for Global Initiatives, a member of the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee, has answers to these questions. A very different energy transition is about to take place globally. Details are in his article.
The founders of a nuclear power startup company called ThorCon have abundant experience in designing and building some of the biggest ships in the world. They realized that molten salt nuclear reactor technology was compatible with the construction techniques used in state-of-the-art shipyards. So why not build complete floating power plants using the latest shipyard building methods and technologies? Such vessels could be self-contained and ready to connect to the power grid in any country. Quality control and cost control could be assured, as would the rapid construction time. The size of the ship necessary to house a fully functional 500MW or 1,000MW power plant would be considerably smaller than ships they've previously built.
Michael Shellenberger testifies before Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on nuclear energy
Jan. 15, 2020 - Author and environmental activist Michael Shellenberger makes his case to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Tech.
by Conley & Maloney @ TEAC8
Roadmaptonowhere.com was created by Mike Conley and Timothy Maloney in response to mistakes they've found in Mark Z. Jacobson's 100% Renewables proposal. This presentation ( and Roadmaptonowhere.com) also incorporate errors uncovered by 21 leading experts in energy research, as they reviewed Jacobson's plan. See blog at Scientific American
The Science Council for Global Initiatives is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. All contributions are tax-deductible.