Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the modern environmental movement’s inception. Since then, Americans have celebrated Earth Day as an opportunity to spread awareness about environmental concerns, mobilize investment in green projects, and inspire individuals and groups to take action.
This Earth Day’s theme is “Invest in Our Planet.” To protect our home, we must decarbonize our economies, and the most affordable, reliable, and clean way to do so is by investing in nuclear energy.
Slate Magazine published an article by Breakthrough Institute’s Seaver Wang that examines what life in 2072 would look like if we do not support nuclear energy now. He sees a warmer climate—about 2.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels—and a slow path to decarbonization due in part to opposition to nuclear energy.
But in this future, he sees the eventual adoption of nuclear power as inevitable.
“After all, in 2072, nuclear power is commonplace … Small nuclear reactors are a normal sight, individually powering factories, mines, island nations, and rural communities, while larger reactors and clusters of six to 12 small units supply heat and electricity to cities,” wrote Wang.
New nuclear comes in all different makes and models with the versatility to provide electricity to large urban areas, as well as small, remote communities.
Wang describes how the world realizes the need for new nuclear, but “the costs of a missed opportunity decades ago are obvious.” Rising sea levels and increased air pollution are just a few of the effects of not properly valuing nuclear as the carbon-free powerhouse that it is now.
But as the IPCC report found this month, we still have time to reduce greenhouse gases—and more importantly, we already have the tools we need, including nuclear, which partners well with intermittent sources such as wind and solar.
We’re seeing countries across the world turn to nuclear, and a record number of nations are including nuclear in their long-term climate plans.
The Czech Republic is pursuing a multibillion-dollar reactor project that will be the single largest investment in the country’s history. Meanwhile, Belgium is extending their original nuclear plans and keeping their reactors online for another 10 years. France, Canada, and the UK have all recently announced they are also pursuing new nuclear programs.
Here in the U.S., there continues to be demonstrated bipartisan support from Congress, as well as the business community, for both existing nuclear and advanced nuclear.
Congress has significantly increased appropriations to accelerate research, development and demonstration over the past several years—including $2.5 billion to Advanced Reactor Demonstrations, with the goal of deployment before the decade is out.
“[Nuclear generation] is land-efficient, materials-efficient, reliable, and co-produces heat and hydrogen,” said Wang. “Stubborn opposition to nuclear energy, however, threatens to leave us saddled with an even more difficult path to a carbon-free future than the one we already face. Our grandchildren will not judge us kindly for such shortsightedness.”
We cannot miss this opportunity to invest in our most reliable source of carbon-free energy and avoid the damages of failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An investment in nuclear today is an investment in our climate tomorrow—so that building clean energy communities, powered by advanced nuclear, is a reality before 2072.
Join energy and climate leaders at NEI's Nuclear Energy Assembly to learn more about decarbonization, clean energy technologies and the industry's climate commitments.
