- DOE launches international nuclear alliance for decarbonization
- Also announces R&D funding for nuclear-generated hydrogen
- Congress orders study on deploying micro-reactors at defense sites
Last week the federal government took great strides—both internationally and here at home—to recognize and promote nuclear energy’s most promising attributes of emission-free electricity generation, reliability and resiliency.
Nearly every country in the world is currently engaged in efforts to reduce their carbon emissions while growing their economies. Currently, 449 reactors in 30 countries provide 34 percent of the world’s clean electricity—that figure is 56 percent in the United States. However, many discussions about increasing the use of clean energy continue to exclude nuclear from consideration.
At a clean energy ministerial-level meeting in Denmark, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette joined Canada and Japan in launching a global initiative that will start to redress that imbalance.
The Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy (NICE) Future initiative’s mission is to highlight the value of nuclear energy as a clean, reliable and resilient energy source. Other countries participating in the initiative include Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, and more than a dozen countries have expressed interest in joining.
NICE “will make sure nuclear has a seat at the table during discussions about innovation and advanced clean energy systems of the future,” Brouillette said at the meeting.
As Secretary Perry has stated, we don’t have to choose between boosting our economy or protecting our environment. We can achieve both.
The initiative promotes the use of innovative nuclear systems that will play a critical role in worldwide decarbonization. These can be applied to electric and nonelectric uses, such as desalination, industrial process heat, systems that integrate baseload nuclear and variable renewable sources, flexible electricity grids, hydrogen production and energy storage. The initiative also will focus on the development of small modular reactors and advanced reactors.
“Nuclear power is finally being sufficiently recognized as the workhorse of the global clean energy sector,” said ClearPath Foundation Executive Director Rich Powell, who attended the meeting.
“The virtues of the current nuclear fleet—namely its carbon-free power and 24/7 reliability—must be coupled with ever-changing demands of our global energy industry. That includes new technologies that make it smaller and highly scalable for use in cities and remote areas and allow for high-temperature use to decarbonize heavy industrial processes,” Powell added.
DOE Funds Research Into Nuclear-Sourced Hydrogen Production
Some of the more nontraditional uses of nuclear technology also were given attention last week. The U.S. Department of Energy's Fuel Cells Technology Office announced it would provide up to $3.5 million for hydrogen production research and development (R&D) using nuclear energy sources. Three projects will investigate using cheap, high-temperature heat from nuclear power plants in an extremely efficient process called high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) to extract hydrogen from steam.
This process can potentially provide nuclear plants with an additional revenue stream, while the hydrogen could be used as a carbon-neutral fuel source in fuel cell vehicles to begin decarbonizing the transportation sector.
Electric cars and other low-emission vehicles are beginning to make inroads into the U.S. market, with one in five Americans likely to buy an electric car as their next vehicle. Earlier this month, beer giant Anheuser-Busch announced it is ordering up to 800 hybrid fuel cell trucks from Nikola Motor Co. for its long-haul delivery fleet, starting in 2020.
Nikola will provide a network of hydrogen refueling stations spanning more than 2,000 miles. While the company says it will generate the hydrogen at the filling stations using renewables, the cheapest and most carbon-neutral source would be nuclear-powered HTE, explains Everett Redmond, NEI’s senior technical advisor for new reactor and advanced technology.
“This could be an emerging market for clean nuclear power, either from existing nuclear plants or in the longer term from co-located or nearby advanced reactors,” Redmond added.
More on Nuclear's Uses Beyond Electricity
Congress Directs DOE to Pursue Advanced Reactors for Defense Sites
Meanwhile, Congress also demonstrated its strong support for the more innovative uses of nuclear energy.
Last week the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which included a bipartisan amendment directing the secretary of energy to partner with the Department of Defense to develop a report on a pilot program to deploy advanced small modular and micro-reactor technology at critical national security facilities.
The vote follows a debate on the amendment and other nuclear-related legislation by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy earlier in the week.
“Today, the exciting promise of advanced reactors took one enormous step closer to becoming reality with bipartisan support on Capitol Hill to pursue the siting, construction and operation of an advanced reactor to provide resilient power to our country’s critical national security locations,” NEI President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Korsnick said.
Today’s vote in the House of Representatives confirms that lawmakers too are keenly interested in attempting to ensure resiliency of critical national security facilities with advanced, clean nuclear technology.
The next 10 years are a critical time for the U.S. nuclear industry to begin transitioning to a wider range of reactor types, including small and advanced reactors.
“Luckily, the nation is blessed with a plethora of innovative talent, with dozens of technology developers, suppliers and the national laboratory system working hard to bring these cutting-edge designs to market,” Korsnick noted.
Small reactors can be used to bring electricity to remote, rural communities or military bases. The industry envisages the government being a customer for power purchase agreements involving advanced reactors.
“Once they’re built, small and micro-reactors could provide resilient, reliable carbon-free power for the U.S. Department of Defense, DOE and agencies across the federal family,” Korsnick said.
The amendment was introduced by Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), and Donald Norcross (D-N.J.).