The Advanced Nuclear Industry

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 07/05/15

Samuel Brinton, a young nuclear engineer, reports that the American energy sector has experienced enormous technological innovation over the past decade in everything from renewables (solar and wind power), to extraction (hydraulic fracturing), to storage (advanced batteries), to consumer efficiency (advanced thermostats). What has gone largely unnoticed is that nuclear power is poised to join the innovation list. A new generation of engineers, entrepreneurs and investors are working to commercialize innovative and advanced nuclear reactors. This is being driven by a sobering reality -the need to add enough electricity to get power to the 1.3 billion people around the world who do not have it while making deep cuts in carbon emissions to effectively combat climate change. Third Way has found that there are nearly 50 companies, backed by more than $1.3 billion in private capital, developing plans for new nuclear plants in the U.S. and Canada. The mix includes startups and big-name investors like Bill Gates, all placing bets on a nuclear comeback, hoping to get the technology in position to win in an increasingly carbon-constrained world. Brinton introduces you to the advanced nuclear industry in North America. It includes the most comprehensive set of details about who is working on these reactor designs and where. He describes the money and momentum building behind advanced nuclear, and how the technology has evolved since the Golden Age of Nuclear. To be clear, this is not your grandfathers nuclear technology. While developers in some cases are working off of old technology designs conceived in our national laboratories during the 1950s and 1960s, the advanced reactor technologies being developed are safer, more efficient and need a fraction of the footprint compared to the nearly 100 light water reactors that provide almost 20% of the U.S. electricity today (and 65% of its carbon-free power). New plants could soon be powered entirely with spent nuclear fuel.