Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Global nuclear generating capacity is expected to increase from four hundred and sixteen gigawatts in 2023 to six hundred and forty-seven gigawatts in 2050 in a scenario based on existing energy policies, according to the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
     Fatih Birol is the IEA Executive Director. She announced the release of its latest World Energy Outlook together with lead authors Tim Gould and Laura Cozzi. “Today’s geopolitical tensions and fragmentation are creating major risks both for energy security and for global action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The world is set to enter a new energy market context in the coming years, marked by continued geopolitical hazards but also by relatively abundant supply of multiple fuels and technologies.”
     Birol added, “In the second half of this decade, the prospect of more ample – or even surplus – supplies of oil and natural gas, depending on how geopolitical tensions evolve, would move us into a very different energy world from the one we have experienced in recent years during the global energy crisis.”
     Based on current policies, the latest IAE report finds that low-carbon sources are set to generate more than half of the world’s electricity before 2030. Demand for all three fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas, is still projected to peak by the end of the decade. However, the report warns that despite growing momentum behind clean energy transitions, the world is still a long way from meeting its net-zero goals.
     The World Energy Outlook 2024 report considers three scenarios. The Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) supplies a prediction based on the latest policy settings, including energy, climate and related industrial policies. The Announced Pledges Scenario (APS) makes the assumption that all national energy and climate targets made by governments are met in full and on time. The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE) reports on what must be done to limit global warming to one and a half °C.
    In the STEPS scenario, clean energy deployment accelerates as the pace of overall energy demand growth slows, which is leading to a peak in all three fossil fuels before 2030. Increasing reductions in coal demand indicates that it is overtaken by natural gas in the global energy mix by 2030. Clean energy sources grow more than total energy demand between 2023 and 2035. Clean energy becomes the largest source of energy in the mid-2030s led by surging solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power.
     The STEPS scenario suggests a triple increase in renewable sources that reduces fossil fuel use from eighty percent of total energy demand in 2023 to fifty eight percent in 2050. This falls far short of the step change that occurs in the APS scenario and the NZE scenario. In both of these scenarios, renewable sources begin to rapidly grow at the expense of the fossil fuel market share. By 2035, clean energy meets forty percent of global energy demand in the APS. This rises to nearly three-quarters by 2050. In the NZE scenario, clean energy meets ninety percent of global energy demand in 2050. Around one-third of the remaining fossil fuel demand in the NZE scenario is fully replaced, around half is used as a feedstock or in other non-energy use. The remainder is offset by direct air capture, negative emissions from bioenergy or other forms of carbon removal.
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Ambient office = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Roma tomato from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 98 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 158 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Nuclear power enjoyed popularity in the 1970s and many of the currently operating U.S. reactors date from that period. However, cost overruns, schedule delays and several serious nuclear accidents cooled that popularity in the following decades. In one of the more surprising comebacks in recent memory, nuclear power is back in the headlines. Its new popularity is being fueled by rising demand for clean energy.
     Microsoft recently made headlines by announcing a deal with the operators of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island to provide carbon-free fuel to help power its data centers. Three Mile Island was the site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident.
     The Biden administration followed the Microsoft announcement on Monday by announcing that it has finalized a loan to reactivate the shuttered Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan over local objections. Representative Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) said “An American nuclear energy resurgence is beginning,” in a statement after the Microsoft deal was announced.
     If that is true, the resurgence is being driven by the technology industry’s demand for clean energy to fuel artificial intelligence and data centers. These facilities are on track to take an increasing share of the nation’s overall power demand in coming years at a time when there is pressure to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
     Recent Gallup polls found that public support for nuclear energy is the highest it’s been in a decade. But public support by itself isn’t going to be enough to overcome the complications of reopening nuclear facilities that fell out of vogue decades ago or getting new plants built. This is especially true in light of the delays and cost overruns that plagued construction of the recently completed Vogtle project in Georgia.
     But Big Tech money just might fuel the nuclear resurgence as cutting-edge companies push their AI dreams as climate positive. Meta has indicated support for nuclear power, and Amazon signed an agreement last March to buy a nuclear-powered data center.
     The fact that nuclear’s comeback is being fueled by some of the world’s wealthiest corporations is raising concerns among some experts. David Hess is a former Pennsylvania secretary of environmental protection who lived a dozen miles away from Three Mile Island during its 1979 meltdown. He is particularly critical of the Microsoft deal. He commented that “Fundamentally, it’s 1960s technology. It’s the only U.S. design of a nuclear power plant that failed catastrophically. So people better go into this with their eyes open, especially because it’s being restarted not for public benefit, but for the private benefit of one company.”
     Facing diminishing low-carbon options as solar and wind power continue to be brought online, states across the country are taking nuclear power seriously as a part of their energy plans. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro wants a rapid permitting process to reopen Three Mile Island. Governor Kathy Hochul is talking up nuclear power in New York State. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is recommending nuclear power as a cornerstone of his energy agenda. And California Governor Gavin Newsom worked hard to save California’s last remaining nuclear plant.
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Ambient office = 134 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 111 nanosieverts per hour

Potato from Central Market = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 90 nanosieverts per hour

     U.S. developer Aalo Atomics has announced it is collaborating with Idaho Falls Power in a project intended to deploy seven factory-built Aalo-1 microreactors, totaling seventy-five megawatts of generation. Microreactors typically have a twenty megawatt or less capacity.
     Yasir Arafat is the Aalo Chief Technical Officer. He said that the Aalo-1 microreactors will be built at the company’s reactor factory and headquarters in Austin, Texas. “The reactors for this project could be the first factory-built commercial microreactors in this country. This approach will allow significantly higher predictability in quality, cost, and schedule than today’s large-scale plants, which, at best, take nearly a decade to build.”
     Aalo said that its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Idaho Falls Power will deliver clean, dependable power to the city of Idaho Falls. It will “open the door for surrounding communities to harness the benefits of advanced nuclear technology”. Idaho Falls Power will use part of the microreactors’ output. The remaining power will be made available to surrounding municipalities and other commercial firms.
     Municipal electric utility Idaho Falls Power currently owns and operates five hydropower plants along the Snake River. These plants provide about one-third of the electricity used in the city of Idaho Falls. It also owns a “small” solar installation but buys most of the balance of its power from the Bonneville Power Administration. The utility stated that it is “negotiating a power purchase agreement with Aalo Atomics” under which Aalo would lease land for the life of the project, up to 80 years, at Idaho Falls Power’s new Energy Research Park. Aalo recently began construction of a seventeen and a half megawatt natural gas plant at the Park.
     Aalo said its choice of Idaho Falls was strategic, building on the area’s rich history of nuclear innovation and ongoing development, and strong public support for nuclear power projects.
     Earlier this year, Aalo announced it had completed the design of the Aalo-1 which is a factory-fabricated ten-megawatt sodium-cooled microreactor using uranium zirconium hydride fuel elements. Aalo is working on the construction of a non-nuclear test reactor (Aalo-0), at its Austin HQ. It plans to build its first nuclear reactor called the Aalo Experimental reactor (Aalo-X) at the Idaho National Laboratory as part of its phased approach to development and deployment.
     In line with this development philosophy, the MoU between Aalo and Idaho Falls Power stipulates that the project can only proceed to full construction once specific cost and uncertainty milestones are met, Aalo said. This will protect both parties from potential setbacks. Aalo is also considering other parallel commercialization paths.

     Matt Loszak is the Aalo CEO. He said that “This phased approach allows us to minimize risks while still pushing the boundaries with new nuclear technology We’ve built in multiple layers of risk reduction so that both partners can move forward with confidence.”
     Aalo added that it was moving forward with plans to secure regulatory approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Idaho Falls project is “slated to go online before the end of the 2020s”, although Idaho Falls Power has said the project “is not expected to come online before 2030.”