As I have mentioned in past blogs, I don't believe that there would be much interest in nuclear power if it were not for the fact that a single nuclear power reactor project involves billions of dollars. This makes it attractive because there is plenty of money to go around to "smooth" the path of such projects. The nuclear industry has benefited from the beginning because nuclear reactors can produce nuclear materials that can be refined into nuclear weapons-grade products that are attractive to the military of major powers. It has been said that the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes was pushed by the U.S. government in the 1950s because the government wanted more money that Congress would appropriate for the development of nuclear weapons. In any case,
The nuclear industry in the U.S. has spent a great deal of money lobbying for grants, subsidies and loan guarantees and has been richly rewarded by the U.S. government. Tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money have flowed into the coffers of corporations in the nuclear sector. Recently, billions in loan guarantees have been made available for new nuclear builds even though nuclear power is losing in the marketplace to cheap gas and oil as well as renewables such as wind and solar. New generations of big reactors have been proposed and nuclear technology companies are working on new designs for reactors in the gigawatt range.
As support for the old type of gigawatt range nuclear reactors has been fading, the nuclear industry is betting on a new generation of small modular reactors (SMRs) under three hundred megawatts. They claim that manufacture in a factory and assembly on site will increase safety and reduce costs but those claims have been challenged by critics. In spite of these criticisms, the nuclear industry is forging ahead with the design and construction of many different SMRs.
Currently, there are almost fifty companies in North America working on advanced nuclear reactor technologies including new big reactors and SMRs. These projects have over one billion three hundred million dollars of private investment supporting them. The nuclear industry complains that lack of support from the Department of Energy (DoE) and the current NRC licensing process requirements in time and money are making it very difficult for new startups in the nuclear sector.
The DoE has just announced a new program to help "facilitate and finance innovation in nuclear power." The program is called the Gateway for Accelerating Innovation In Nuclear or GAIN. According to the DoE, the program is intended to "provide the nuclear energy community with access to the technical, regulatory, and financial support necessary to move new or advanced nuclear reactor designs toward commercialization.”
The new GAIN program was announced at a Summit on Nuclear Energy that was held last week at the White House. The nuclear industry sees this program as an indication that the Obama administration is supportive of the expansion of nuclear power generation in the U.S. As part of GAIN, nuclear companies will be able to get loan guarantees from the DoE to cover the cost of NRC licensing. This includes design certification, construction permits and the necessary licenses which together can cost in the millions of dollars. The DoE is also going to create a "small-business voucher system" that will enable companies to use U.S. national laboratory facilities.
Personally, I feel that this money would be much better spent in the pursuit of new renewables technology. The cost of nuclear power will just keep rising and that of renewables will keep falling. Propping up the declining nuclear sector with government life support is futile and it is time to pull the plug.
