No one doubts the seriousness of climate change. Unfortunately, this seriousness hasn’t translated into tangible global action. Sure, countries are making pledges and enacting incentives such as the Inflation Reduction Act. But pledges have proven hollow and incentives are aimed at enlisting private capital. I have nothing against private capital being involved its simply that private capital does not work cooperatively across national boundaries, it has very different risk and return profiles and is much more subject to hyperbolic discounting. Private capital is opportunistic and is not necessarily committed to any specific investment, but rather those with the best risk / return profiles. Global climate change has an incalculable risk / return profile making global coordinated efforts from the private sector impossible.
I referenced the Manhattan Project for two reasons. First to stress the necessity of commitment and focus. Second, because I believe we need to immediately and passionately embrace nuclear as one of our best bets for successfully addressing CO2 emissions. I get a lot of pushback regarding nuclear as too expensive and too long to deploy. The flaw in that reasoning is because detractors are looking backwards to the large customer built reactors of 40 years ago. The new breed of small modular nuclear systems can be scaled, globally produced and since the can be built with standard production processes, they will enjoy the same cost reductions as we have seen in solar and wind. The key is that they can provide 24 x 7 dispatchable power and basically can be dropped in to shuttered coal plants and utilize the same transmission and distribution interconnection. This reduces the integration cost and need for as extensive an investment in transmission infrastructure.
I am happy to see that we are moving in this direction. Dow has signed a letter of intent with X-energy to deploy one of X-energy’s small modular nuclear plants at Dow’s US Gulf Coast sites. It is expected to be operational by 2030. The press release is here: https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/news/press-releases/dow–x-energy-to-drive-carbon-emissions-reductions-through-deplo.html
Second. NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) has just published a report on tripling US nuclear generation by 2035. Read the report here: https://energycentral.com/news/nrel-sees-path-triple-nuclear-capacity-2035-theres-more-story?utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=DAILY_NEWS&utm_content=0&utm_source=2022_09_21
Lastly, the Biden Administration is funding community education on nuclear waste. To help dispel confusion and misinformation for this vital technology. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-admin-fund-community-education-nuclear-waste-2022-09-20/
If we focus and support mass production of SMR’s we dramatically improve our chances of saving our planet. Thank you.
#resiliency #renewableenergy #backuppower #sustainability #nuclear