CERAWEEK: Nuclear can play significant role in achieving net-zero: panelists

Promising developments in nuclear technology enhance its chances for helping cut the power grid's carbon dioxide emissions to zero, but that work could be advanced by federal legislation, experts said during a panel discussion March 10.

The International Energy Agency estimates the global economy has spent trillions of dollars on renewables, "but carbon emissions are still rising," said Daniel Poneman, president and CEO of Centrus Energy, a supplier of nuclear fuel and services, during a "Nuclear's Role in Achieving Net Zero" panel discussion.

"We're putting renewables on the grid, and we're taking clean nuclear off the grid, and we're not even treading water; we're sinking slowly," Poneman said.

It is critical for financial institutions to agree that the zero-emissions nature of nuclear power qualifies it as acceptable according to environmental, social, and governance standards, said Maria Korsnick, Nuclear Energy Institute president and CEO.

Small modular reactors

John Wagner, director of the Idaho National Laboratory, said "there's a lot of interest" in newer technologies such as small modular reactors that generate less power but cost less to build and involve less risk.

Nuclear reactors can also serve multiple purposes — generating electricity for the grid when demand is high or producing hydrogen from water when demand is low, and hydrogen can be used as a fuel for other purposes, such as transportation or gas-fired generation where nuclear power is unavailable, Wagner said.

NEI's Korsnick said, "I think we need to start with a little bit of love for the current fleet ... to shore up the current fleet."

Federal support needed

Such support, including incentives for investments in nuclear power, was in the proposed federal "Build Back Better" legislation, which failed to garner a sufficient number of votes in the US Senate to pass. Nevertheless, Korsnick said she is "optimistic" that legislation may pass that addresses nuclear power's need for federal support.

"We need everything we can get as quickly as we can get it," Korsnick said. "It's not just a US problem, it's a global problem."

If the US would resume its nuclear technology leadership mantle, the US could not only benefit directly from clean energy, it could export the technology to other countries, thereby enhancing the US' influence and diminishing that of competing regimes, such as those in Russia and China, Korsnick said.

Centrus Energy's Poneman said, "if you want to not be held hostage, you need energy security."

An audience member asked panelists about how they viewed the long-delayed, over-budget additions to Georgia Power's Vogtle Nuclear Project, which the audience member described as a "nightmare."

Korsnick responded that "when you don't do something for a really long time, it's not normally a real smooth process" to start again.