Commercial nuclear power produces the densest power available at scale, with the highest capacity factor and zero carbon emissions—the ideal combination of attributes for electrification. Anthropogenic scale and economic growth have always tracked energy density: coal and the Industrial Revolution, oil in the roaring 1920s, and most recently, natural gas. Nuclear was seen as the clean replacement for hydrocarbons, so what happened?
In this report, Jed Dorsheimer, group head of the energy and power technologies sector, explores the thesis that the conflation with nuclear weapons and the leftover sentiment from the 1960s counterculture movement enabled long-lasting regulatory bloat to suppress the tremendous potential of nuclear energy. Specifically, he explores three modalities of a nuclear renaissance:
- Uprating and extending the operating life of existing nuclear reactors
- Restarting decommissioned nuclear reactors
- Deploying next-generation small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors in the commercial power sector
Two critical bottlenecks must be solved to enable the nuclear renaissance: deregulation and nuclear fuel enrichment capacity. We calculate that over $2,000 per kWh of additional regulatory burden is foisted upon nuclear facilities, which is as expensive as a heavy-duty natural gas turbine in extra cost. Looking ahead, we need to rebuild our domestic and American-owned nuclear enrichment capacity. If we solve these two roadblocks, we can usher in the next era of nuclear, first by uprating our current fleet, then restarting recently decommissioned facilities, and lastly, building new SMRs sited at current facilities and co-located at demand.
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