Net Zero Needs More Nuclear—Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing

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Nuclear

Jim Rugg

President, Atkins Nuclear Secured, Washington, D.C., USA contact form

The UK, Canada, South Korea and France are among those countries that have embraced nuclear power, and they’re right to do so.

With more than 80 percent of global GDP covered by one Net Zero pledge or another, meeting 2050 Net Zero targets mean the world needs an unprecedented speed and scope of investment. Add in long lead timelines for new infrastructure projects, and 2050 is creeping up on us at an alarming pace.

The US will need to expand electricity generation up to four times current levels as it electrifies cars, heavy industrial processes, the heating of homes and buildings and virtually everything else currently powered by fossil fuels. In short, the US will need to expand electric transmission to improve grid reliability, resilience and resource adequacy, enhance renewable resource integration and access to clean energy, decrease energy burden, support electrification efforts and reduce congestion and curtailment.

The US is privileged to have a diversified energy sector, covering both carbon-emitting and non-emitting technologies. But the answer isn’t one energy source or the other. It’s an “all of the above” approach. One that includes renewable energy, natural gas paired with carbon capture, nuclear and hydropower. An important endorsement of this approach, and of nuclear power’s role in particular, came in November 2022 with the Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) Program that supports the continued operations of safe and reliable nuclear energy facilities, preserving thousands of good-paying, clean energy jobs while avoiding carbon emissions. The $6 billion program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Recently, the nuclear sector has undergone a bit of a renaissance. And that’s a good thing for a Net Zero future.

Clean, Reliable, Always On

A Net Zero energy mix is practically useless if it can’t: (A) produce enough power, (B) produce it when it’s needed, and (C) produce it at a price consumers can afford.

The first two parts are crucial. Renewables like wind and solar are intermittent—only producing power under certain conditions. So, they must be balanced with reliable baseload power sources that are weather resilient. In fact, nuclear is one of the only zero-emissions baseload sources with assured security of supply, regardless of weather.

Nuclear power also affords countries unprecedented energy security. Consider global supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, recent Russian oil and gas embargos and ongoing global geopolitical risk that could upend bilateral trade at any time. It’s clear that when a government relies on large quantities of imported energy, it leaves the ability of its citizens to cool their homes, charge their phones and perform virtually any other electrically powered function in another country’s hands.

Additionally, nuclear energy is dependent on a much smaller import supply chain and exposes utilities to far lower commodity price risk than fossil fuels.

There Are Concerns, But There Are Engineered Solutions

There are two historical concerns around nuclear power. One is safety, the other is waste. Current concerns about both rest on old technology that was never properly modernized to the latest standards.

Modern reactors have thorough safety systems designed to de-risk even the most unlikely scenarios. Advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) are a key part of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) goal to develop safe, clean and affordable nuclear power options. SMRs are roughly a third of the size of a typical nuclear power plant with designs that may employ light water as a coolant or other non-light water coolants such as a gas, liquid metal, or molten salt that can be used for power generation, process heat, desalination and other industrial uses. Because of the simplicity and flexibility in design, SMRs offer lower upfront costs, enhanced safety and security, shorter lead and construction times, greater scalability and siting flexibility.

The second issue of spent nuclear fuel is more closely related to Net Zero’s intersection with environmental stewardship. Indeed, we know how to deal with these legacy materials safely, efficiently and effectively. The answer is long-term planning alongside dedicated funding.

Multiple countries, including Canada, Finland, France, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, are either building or planning to build long-term storage facilities called deep geological repositories (DGRs) to store their used nuclear fuel. The US safely and securely stores its spent fuel at more than 70 reactor sites across the country. The US DOE is also exploring the possibility of consolidating spent nuclear fuel using a consent-based siting process.

Reducing the quantity of used nuclear fuel via recycling will also become more commonplace. Recently, we announced a partnership with Moltex Energy in Canada to advance the development and deployment of a small modular reactor to fuel itself with used nuclear fuel.

Nuclear and hydrogen

Hydrogen plays a significant role in our Net Zero future, across the world and many different sectors. However, hydrogen doesn’t naturally exist; it must be made, then stored and transported to an end user, commonly known as an “off taker”. Nuclear energy can be used to produce low-carbon/zero-carbon hydrogen at a large scale.

$8 billion has been allocated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to demonstrate regional clean hydrogen hubs or H2Hubs. There are several nuclear hydrogen demonstration projects in the US that are currently in development. The production, storage, transport and end-use of clean hydrogen, including innovative uses in the industrial sector, are crucial to DOE’s strategy for achieving the goal of 100 percent clean electrical grid by 2035 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As nuclear assumes an increasingly important role in the Net Zero energy picture, citizens, policymakers, and even activists will begin to see why nuclear, done correctly and cost effectively, is a close ally to “Team Net Zero.” We need to build more nuclear power, not less of it.

A version of this article appeared in The Financial Post in November 2022.

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