Texas has big potential as nuclear generation technology center: regulator

Texas has substantial advantages for developing nuclear power plants, both on-site and modular, but faces a permitting "valley of death" to move projects forward, a state regulator told attendees of The University of Texas at Austin Energy Week March 28.

Jimmy Glotfelty, a member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, chairs the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group, and he spoke during a UT Energy Week panel discussion titled, "The Future of Nuclear via the Past and President Perspectives of France, the US and Texas."

"We have the supply chain -- the manufacturing for oil and gas facilities," Glotfelty said. "We fabricate things. We have the people with welding skills and pipefitters. We have all of these -- different disciplines that go into making vessels, pumps, steel structures, concrete structures. All of these things are necessary for small modular nuclear generation."

Describing the working group's activities, Glotfelty said, "We're ecstatic about the direction and speed and progress we're making."

The working group has formed four subgroups, he said, which are:

• State and federal policy
• State and federal regulatory issues
• Education
• Supply chain

Glotfelty said the working group is studying the potential impact of five new nuclear power plants in Texas, but after the panel discussion, he said he hoped more could be built.

Two nuclear research facilities are currently planned for Texas, Glotfelty said. One is at Abilene Christian University and is experimenting with the use of molten salts as nuclear reactor coolant, to start operating by the end of 2025. The other location is in Seadrift, where Dow is working with X-energy to develop a small modular reactor, with construction to start in 2026 and start operating by 2030.

Report due in December

The working group plans to start compiling a report to Governor Greg Abbott in the summer and present it in December, Glotfelty said.

However, Glotfelty said he views the prospect of obtaining permits for any of the various new nuclear technologies being studied as "the valley of death."

"We're going to have to break this out somehow in a way that is going to protect federal dollars and commercial dollars," Glotfelty said. "It's going to take state knowledge in order to do that."

Not all of the various designs will be available immediately after the report is presented, Glotfelty said, but the working group hopes to compile a "stable" of designs "that we know can be built here in Texas."

A French cognate

The other main panelist was Sunil Felix, nuclear counselor for the Embassy of France in the US and Canada.

The moderator, Dale Klein, a UT professor of mechanical engineering and former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, described Texas and France as having a similar geographic size, but Felix noted that France's population is 64 million, roughly double Texas' 30 million.

Fifty-six nuclear reactors provide 75% of France's electricity, Felix said. France ramped up its nuclear generation capacity in the wake of the twin energy crises of the 1970s, in an effort to ensure the nation had energy security.

France supports increasing Europe's nuclear power capacity from 100 GW to 150 GW by 2050, Felix said.

And at the UN Climate Change Conference in December, France joined the US, Canada, the UK and Japan in a group known as the "Sapporo 5" to ensure reliable nuclear power supply chains and to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050.

Pairing with renewables

Felix said nuclear can be paired with renewable power to provide carbon-free energy.

In Texas, the nameplate capacity of nuclear, wind, solar and battery will exceed projected weather-normalized peakload by 2026, S&P Global Commodity Insights data shows. It should be noted that the effective load-carrying capacity for wind and solar can often be a mere fraction of nameplate capacity.

France recycles its nuclear fuel, which still has about 97% of its energy when initially removed from a reactor, Felix said. This process is more expensive than conventional processes used in the US, but Felix said after the panel that "price is not the only factor" to be considered in a nation's energy policy.

"Energy security is one of the more important criteria that has to be taken into account," Felix said.

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, France's nuclear fuel recycling helped the nation cope with the loss of access to Russian uranium. In contrast, Germany bore a heavy cost in cutting its use of Russian natural gas, Felix said.

"I'd rather pay a little bit more for electricity than pay for cheap energy at the cost of independence," Felix said.