Part 1 of 2 Parts
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) is working on a plan to boost the ailing nuclear industry in the U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is considered to be a major player in the U.S. nuclear industry. On May 29th, he participated in a webinar to explain and endorse the plan to assist the nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is the dominant nuclear power trade association. It was represented by Maria Korsnick who is the CEO. The smaller U.S, Nuclear Industry Council was represented by Clarence Albright who is the CEO.
Brouillette’s plan for a U.S. nuclear revival is the creation of a one and a half billion dollar U.S. uranium stockpile and associated nuclear processing facilities. These are referred to as the “front end” of the nuclear fuel cycle. Brouillette claimed that this stockpile is necessary to revive the domestic nuclear power industry and to protect the nuclear navy. However, the DoE has weakened its own argument about the Navy’s uranium needs by stating that the Navy has plenty of nuclear fuel to supply its needs until at least 2050. More uranium stored in a stockpile will do nothing to help the declining U.S. nuclear power industry.
This proposal for a U.S. uranium stockpile does nothing to help with the two very real problems confronting the U.S. nuclear industry. There is no domestic market for new reactors and it is increasingly difficult and expensive to keep current nuclear power plants operating. Extremely low natural gas, wind and solar prices are making nuclear power uncompetitive. The U.S. spot prices for electricity take precedence and there is no concern for probable costs in the out-years or interest in the environmental benefits of specific technologies including nuclear.
To be blunt about uranium availability in the U.S., there is not now or ever been a significant shortage of uranium. In the past, fear of a shortage of uranium has been used as leverage to get other things accomplished. Currently, it appears that this call for a uranium stockpile is intended to rescue uranium mining in the U.S. It would secure large amounts of uranium, consolidated in storage facilities. These stores would have to be managed in perpetuity
It was fear of a uranium shortage that was the motivation to push for the development and construction of breeder reactors in the 1970s. The Clinch River Breeder Reactor was to be the prototype for such reactors. It was going to be built on the Tennessee Valley Authority system. The last chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dixie Lee Ray, said at the time that she had not been able to develop a scenario in which there would be shortfall of uranium in the U.S. James Schlesinger was the first U.S. Secretary of Energy. He said at the time that the idea that the U.S. would run out of uranium was “a fiction.”
The domestic uranium mining industry is on the edge of collapse. However, there is plenty of uranium being mined around the world. Most of this mining is being done in countries that have good relations with the U.S. Uranium mining is taking place Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan and Namibia.
Please read Part 2