Considering the polarization that has afflicted politics in recent years, it is remarkable that Congress can agree on anything. A happy exception to that rule was the recent passage of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, which is designed to jump-start America’s ailing nuclear energy industry. The bill was passed overwhelmingly by the Senate and the House and is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The bill, among other things, does the following to encourage the construction of new nuclear power plants: It cuts fees charged by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to developers proposing to build nuclear power plants. It streamlines the regulatory process to approve constructing new nuclear power plants. It encourages the NRC to work with regulators in other countries to open new markets for American-made nuclear power plants. And it creates a prize to be awarded for construction of the first next-generation nuclear power plant as well as technology for recycling nuclear waste.
Until the 1970s, many saw nuclear power as the future for providing America’s energy needs. However, environmental groups began to protest the construction of nuclear power plants because of fears of nuclear accidents and the problem of nuclear waste disposal. The accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima supercharged opposition to nuclear power.
Increasing regulatory costs and competition from fossil fuels and renewable energy sources further stymied the construction of new nuclear power plants. The most recent nuclear power plants to be brought online were Unit 3 and Unit 4 of the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, which took over a decade to build at a cost of $34 billion.
Several factors have converged to cause policymakers to take a new look at nuclear power.
Many people have become concerned about the effects of climate change caused by CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plants. This concern has caused the proliferation of renewable energy plants, primarily solar and wind.
However, renewable energy has a decided disadvantage. Solar power only works when the sun is out. Wind power only works when the winds blow. Renewable energy facilities require either extensive battery backups or natural gas power plants that can fire up quickly when renewable energy falters.
Nuclear power, on the other hand, runs 24/7. And nuclear power plants have a smaller land footprint compared to wind and solar.
New technology promises to revolutionize the way we make electricity by splitting atoms. One example is a nuclear plant being built in Wyoming by TerraPower, a company owned by billionaire Bill Gates. The TerraPower plant uses sodium instead of water to cool the reactor.
Another nuclear innovation is the concept of a small, modular nuclear power plant that puts out hundreds of megawatts of power instead of the gigawatt that conventional power plants create. These plants are quicker and easier to build and are ideal for industrial facilities and military bases.
Dow is building a small, modular nuclear power plant to provide energy for a manufacturing facility in Seadrift, Texas. The U.S. Defense Innovation Unit is soliciting bids for even smaller, micro reactors to make military bases energy self-sufficient.
Finally, nuclear power will go a long way toward fulfilling the energy demands of our technological civilization. The push for electric cars, the development of AI and industrial robotics, and even the rise of bitcoin all take a lot of energy to enable.
Naturally, the devil is in the implementation. Congress will have to step up with funding for the NRC to replace the lost money from fees that past legislation cut. The NRC will have to staff up and get serious about cutting the time and money it takes to approve new nuclear power plants.
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Also, the anti-nuclear movement is not going away. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that has pursued a liberal agenda on issues ranging from the environment to nuclear power to missile defense, has already expressed concerns about the ADVANCE Act. Those opposed to nuclear power will leave no stone unturned to derail a nuclear renaissance.
Regardless, the ADVANCE Act is still a good step toward ensuring a future of energy abundance.
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and energy policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond, and, most recently, Why is America Going Back to the Moon? He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.