The Rundown – The Role DOE Must Play in Nuclear Power
Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending June 8. Feedback welcome at info@clearpathaction.org.
JAY FAISON JOINS DOE NUCLEAR ADVISORS
ClearPath Founder Jay Faison was named to the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, which offers advice and recommendations from a range of experts to the assistant secretary for nuclear energy.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has appointed Jay to the Committee through December 2019. NEAC was established in 1998 and provides advice and recommendation on scientific, commercial, technical and programmatic issues relating to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Jay joins NuScale Power Chairman and CEO John Hopkins, Oklo Co-founder and COO Caroline Cochran, Nuclear Industry Council President and CEO David Blee, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Maria Korsnick and others on the committee.
THE ROLE DOE MUST KEEP PLAYING IN U.S. NUCLEAR ENERGY
Jay has a new 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.
NuScale Power announced its small modular reactor would be able to generate 20 percent more power than originally planned, which would make the new technology more competitive with other electricity generation sources. The uptick in power comes with minimum change in capital costs and lowers both the cost of a facility on a per kilowatt basis and NuScale’s levelized cost of electricity, the company announced.
House lawmakers are poised today to approve a FY19 Energy and Water spending bill offering a sweeping set of resources and program direction to the Department of Energy that would spur advanced nuclear, carbon capture, energy storage and other clean energy technologies.
Among the highlights, the bill:
Builds upon direction in the FY18 spending deal for DOE to map out a “moonshot” goal for demonstrating advanced nuclear technologies with the private sector by the mid to late 2020s
Directs the energy secretary to launch a department-wide energy storage effort with aggressive performance targets, utilizing the strengths of the agency’s electricity, renewable and science offices to drive down costs and improve performance of grid-scale technologies
Prioritizes R&D of new advanced reactor designs by providing $100 million for advanced small modular nuclear reactor R&D, which helps innovative pending designs — such as NuScale Power’s — get up and running on schedule; and $155 million for advanced reactor technologies that could help more advanced technologies being worked on by Terrapower, X-energy and others
Supports scale-up of carbon capture efforts, including new solicitations for advanced fossil fuel system engineering, and specifically projects that generate emissions suitable for utilization or storage
Advances and fully funds the ongoing five-year R&D effort led by DOE’s Energy Innovation Hubs – namely the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (developing extraordinary new batteries) and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (using sunlight to turn water into clean hydrogen fuel)
DOE ANNOUNCES ADVANCED NUCLEAR FUNDING
DOE announced $24 million for 10 advanced nuclear projects as part of ARPA-E’s MEITNER program. The projects include Westinghouse Electric’s development of a self-regulating method to “safe shutdown” a reactor without the need for external power sources or additional controls; Terrestrial Energy’s development of a pump for molten salt reactors; and two projects from General Atomics, including designing a helium-driven engine. FULL DETAILS
