Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending June 15. Feedback welcome at info@clearpathaction.org.
THE RURALIZATION OF U.S. NUCLEAR POWER
In 1994, the Clinton administration shut down a small sodium reactor that had operated without incident at Idaho National Laboratory for 30 years. This small reactor was termed “walk-away safe” because when the liquid sodium coolant got too hot, it expanded and shut itself down. Now, entrepreneurs are bringing it back from the dead.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski and ClearPath Founder Jay Faison teamed up for an op-ed in CNN on how these sodium and other advanced microreactors could be a godsend for Alaska communities who spend up to half of their annual income on energy and other rural and remote communities stretching from the Arctic tundra to Puerto Rico who are desperate for clean, cheap, safe and reliable power options.
Jay also has a blog out highlighting some initial thoughts on what we at ClearPath call NuclearVision.
It includes:
Setting aggressive technology goals, in coordination with the private sector, that balance the pace of scientific innovation with commercial needs.
Proactively encouraging thinking that challenges the status quo and pushes the limit of innovation
Empowering technical staff, including program managers that should come from the cutting edge of industry
Following those and other guiding principles could result in proper investments in DOE’s research programs, facilitating advanced fuels development, constructing a versatile fast test reactor by 2026 and competitive cost sharing for our most promising advanced reactor designs.
BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY MAKES BIG ENERGY STORAGE INVESTMENT
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion-plus fund launched by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and others, is backing its first companies: A pair of energy storage startups. Quidnet Energy is developing a pumped hydro storage technology that does not rely on rivers or dams but rather underground shale rock formations and a batter. Form Energy is a company working on making a battery that could be far less expensive storage than traditional lithium-ion batteries.
ClearPath once again was a proud sponsor of the 109th annual Congressional Baseball Game. Who cares who won the game, which raised lots of money for Congressional Sports for Charity.
DARDEN TOUTS MOONSHOT GOALS IN BROADER CLEAN TECH PLAN
A national moonshot goal should be launched to spur more public and private investments in clean energy technologies, according to a new policy playbook released by the University of Virginia Darden School of Business’ Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The playbook lists five other actions that should be taken, including national clean-tech bank and lending models and a “New Deal” strategy for helping communities bring in clean tech industries and jobs.
The Department of Energy will give the University of Utah $140 million over five years for next-generation geothermal R&D. The university will house the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) field laboratory dedicated to enhanced geothermal systems or manmade geothermal reservoirs.
