Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending Dec. 21. Rundown is taking a break for the holidays but feedback is always welcome at info@clearpathaction.org. Thanks for reading, see you in 2019.
CONGRESS APPROVES MAJOR ADVANCED NUCLEAR PACKAGE
Lawmakers this week added to one of the most productive Congresses for advanced nuclear power.
House lawmakers Friday afternoon approved the bipartisan Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA), which would develop a framework to quicken licensing of advanced nuclear reactors. The Senate passed the bill Thursday.
NEIMA would direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop a common-sense licensing pathway for advanced reactor concepts that promotes safety without being overly prescriptive. This is part of a broader effort to “rightsize” the NRC to match its workload.
Original sponsors include Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso, former EPW Chairman Jim Inhofe, Republicans Mike Crapo, Deb Fischer and Shelley Moore Capito and Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and Joe Manchin.
The final version sent to President Trump also includes language from the bipartisan Nuclear Utilization of Keynote Energy (NUKE) Act led by Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Gene Green (D-Texas) to update NRC’s fee structure, expedite licensing and examine other potential benefits to the nuclear industry.
“It’s heartening to again see Congress step up to the plate in a big bipartisan way to bolster advanced nuclear technologies that are a major part of the future of U.S. and global clean and reliable power,” ClearPath Action Executive Director Rich Powell said. “Bringing any new energy technology into the marketplace is daunting, and that’s doubly-true for heavily regulated industries like nuclear. By allowing companies a pathway to licensing with clearer expectations and benchmarks in line with other heavily regulated produces like drugs and aircraft, NEIMA will unlock even greater private-sector innovation towards a reinvigorated nuclear sector.”
STAY TUNED FOR MORE IN 2019
In a New York Times op-ed, Chairman Barrasso laid out three main arguments: “The first is, the climate is changing and we, collectively, have a responsibility to do something about it. Second, the United States and the world will continue to rely on affordable and abundant fossil fuels, including coal, to power our economies for decades to come. And third, innovation, not new taxes or punishing global agreements, is the ultimate solution.”
DOE SIGNS NEW SMALL MODULAR REACTOR AGREEMENT
Advanced nuclear milestones also continued off Capitol HIll.
DOE”s Office of Nuclear Energy Friday announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the department, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) regarding the importance of resilient power generated from small modular reactors.
The MOU highlights DOE’s intent to draw from two modules of a 12-module SMR plant intended for construction at Idaho National Laboratory. That plant will use SMR technology designed by NuScale Power, with UAMPS as the initial commercial customer.
The MOU includes the intent by BEA and UAMPS to sign an agreement to use one of the NuScale modules for INL research, development and demonstration, while DOE and UAMPS will work together to engage local utility provider Idaho Power to supply up to 70MW of power from the project to INL through 2030.
Meanwhile, a nuclear test reactor at INL that can melt uranium fuel rods in seconds is running again after a near quarter-century shutdown. The INL reactor has performed 10 tests on nuclear fuel since late last year.
WHAT WE LEARNED IN POLAND
Rich was invited to participate at a U.S.-led event during the recent COP24 global climate summit in Poland. In his latest blog, he shares his observations from his trip, including what climate activists there got right and wrong about the future of clean power:
“It was discouraging – albeit not surprising – to see a number of protesters take much of the attention away from what we consider a practical conversation about using cutting-edge innovation to chart a path forward that marries energy growth and security with a cleaner power supply.
While I understood and share their urgency to address climate change, the emphasis from these protesters on immediately discontinuing the role of fossil fuels appears to be woefully misguided, not to mention rejected by a developing world that is rapidly industrializing and the consensus of scientists who believe that carbon capture technologies must play a role in a zero-emissions future.”
The reality, Rich notes, is that global clean development is not accelerating fast enough because we aren’t embracing the full tool kit of clean energy options.
But he was encouraged by other dialogue in Katowice, including a group of former Obama administration officials and other climate advocates touting everything from small modular nuclear reactors to directly removing carbon dioxide from the air.
In a timely op-ed, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation Senior Fellow David Hart and ClearPath’s innovation director Spencer Nelson explain why the global Mission Innovation effort must expand to include long-duration energy storage as an important path towards zero-emission power. “American leadership is essential to bend the curve of carbon pollution downward toward zero,” they wrote. “A U.S.-powered international initiative to accelerate progress on a technology essential to that push — long-duration energy storage — would demonstrate that leadership.”
An early-stage energy technology Loan Programs Office that spawned the Solyndra failure still offers value in accelerating deployment of innovative technologies and is worth keeping as long as it is properly reformed, writes American Action Reform’s Philip Rossetti. That includes paring back “existing late-stage renewable energy subsidies and use that revenue to turn LPO into a more transparent and competitive program that could better attract applicants,” he wrote. “Absent reform, LPO would remain a revenue-neutral or revenue-positive loan guarantee program with few applicants.”
IEA: GLOBAL COAL RISE UNDERSCORES CARBON CAPTURE TECH NEED
New International Energy Agency findings further underscore the reality that global coal use is on the rise – thanks to a surge in India and elsewhere in Southeast Asia more than offsetting declines in the U.S. and Europe – and that carbon capture technology deployment and use has to step up dramatically. Progress with deploying carbon capture technologies “remains woefully off-track with what is required for a sustainable energy future,” IEA warned.
RELATED READS
Rich Powell and ClearPath’s clean fossil expert Justin Ong last spring broke down just how important the fix to the Section 45Q tax incentive was – and why it’s not enough to boost carbon capture
Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), long a powerful voice for clean energy innovation, this week announced he won’t seek reelection in 2020.
A major part of his legacy has been ensuring proper investments for Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Lab and for innovation efforts writ large that have made sizable impacts to our nation’s clean and reliable power supply and potential.
That includes sizable increases just these last two years for advanced nuclear R&D amid efforts to cut such spending. His technology-inclusive vision has brought a welcome pragmatic voice to the climate and clean energy debates.
Rich Powell: “Sen. Alexander is an innovation lion who will be sorely missed and we look forward to working with him next Congress to ensure his clean energy legacy is further cemented.”
NEWS NUGGETS
Alphabet Inc’s X moonshot lab has spun off a new independent energy-storage company, Malta Inc., which has raised $26 million led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures LLC, a fund backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and others. The money will help Malta further develop a system that uses large vats of molten salt and cooler liquid to store electricity generated from variable sources such as solar and wind, Chief Executive Officer Ramya Swaminathan told Bloomberg. The startup likely will need additional funds to build a full facility.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry backed a new liquefied natural gas deal between Poland and San Diego-based Sempra, the second such merger with Poland in about a month intended to wean Europe off of Russian gas. The Trump administration presided over a separate deal between Houston-based Cheniere Energy and Poland last month to import U.S. LNG for 20 years.
