F.A.Q.

In some sense, all of our energy comes from the Big Bang, which created stars and planets. Mankind has been fortunate that we’ve been gifted with special minerals with the ability to fission. A  single fission event has been found to produce 200,000,000 electron volts of energy carbon free versus 2 electron volts produced by the burning of a single hydrocarbon molecule, that merely breaks a chemical bond and results in the release of a molecule of CO2.  We hope this graphic helps explain the origins of energy (click to enlarge).

There are many expert professional groups and organizations that have devoted enormous resources to helping the public understand nuclear accurately. We shall list some of the best resources that we have found below:

1. The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy is responsible for managing nuclear energy in the U.S. and overseeing nuclear research conducted in the national labs as well as providing DOE grants through a range of programs. The department’s website represents the scope of their work and numerous initiatives and is designed for use by professionals more than the general public. There are, however, a number of consumer-oriented infographics, such as Five Fast Facts about Nuclear Energy, which are accessible through their Information Resources area. The Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, has been doing a lot of videos discussing nuclear energy. We highly recommend that people search for Secretary Granholm’s Youtube videos and follow her on Twitter, to get up-to-date info on what the DOE is doing regarding nuclear energy.
2. The Idaho National Lab is at the forefront of work being done to bring nuclear energy in to the 21st century. The INL is leading the nation’s research in advanced nuclear energy technology and work to develop technology and support American innovators working to design advanced reactors that can replace fossil fuels with carbon-free energy and materials that lower carbon emissions for every energy source. They have their own Nuclear Energy FAQ page, which has great information for those seeking reliable answers to key questions about nuclear safety, reliability, operation and more.
3. The American Nuclear Society (ANS), which turns 70 in 2024, ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society. They have an “About Nuclear” section that provides information about fission, fusion, radiation and videos discussing “Nuclear Science 101.”
4. General Electric (GE) has been “at the forefront of innovation in nuclear power generation since the mid-1950s,” and they have experienced both the ups and the downs of the industry. They are a leading public company that is currently working on Advanced Nuclear and they have produced a very informative, nine-page position paper entitled “Nuclear Energy: A critical pillar of a carbon-free future,” which touts their views on the role that nuclear should play in the transition to a carbon-free future.
5. Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), an organization funded predominantly by large U.S. utilities, provides a range of resources on its website that enable you to look at nuclear fact sheets, nuclear statistics, performance data, such as the amount of nuclear generation in each state, and much more. (Note: because virtually all utilities also own fossil fuel and renewable energy assets, many nuclear advocates believe that NEI does not provide sufficient advocacy for nuclear power.)
6. The International Energy Agency (IEA), headed up by Dr. Fatih Birol, monitors international energy activity and works to ensure energy security, tracks clean energy transitions, collects energy performance data and  provides education and training around the world. They monitor and report on all types of fuels used internationally, including nuclear energy.
7. World Nuclear Association is an international organization devoted to promoting a wider understanding of nuclear energy among key international influencers by producing authoritative information, developing common industry positions, and contributing to the energy debate. They have a library of information that is unparalleled for learning about what each country is doing with respect to nuclear power.
8. What is Nuclear? is an informational website run by Nick Touran, a nuclear engineering Ph.D. currently working at TerraPower, who has built this site to explain nuclear in the context of climate and energy issues.  It is straight-forward and easy to understand.

Nuclear power exploits atomic energy, which is roughly 100 million times more energy dense than fossil fuels. Nuclear fission, commercialized more than 60 years ago has had an amazing performance track record, which has proven its value for meeting our energy needs—yet has gone almost thirty years without a significant upgrade. Which is what is happening now: Gen IV nuclear is finally emerging, right as the world has recognized the existential threat posed by fossil fuels. These new designs combined with a range of supporting ventures for improved fuel, reprocessing and waste storage, promise to address all that ails traditional nuclear and transform nuclear into a powerhouse sector that will finally equip humanity with the energy tools we need to fully decarbonize.

Many companies are racing to commercialize designs and bring them to market at the right price and with the right features to meet widespread energy needs. Utilities and other energy buyers are already committed to carbon reductions, they just don’t have the right commercial products to achieve their goals. Thus, if these nuclear ventures succeed, there will be rapid adoption and many huge commercial successes, as nuclear plants and reactors replace coal and gas boilers around the world.  Investors in advanced nuclear today have the best chance of earning the greatest returns from holding early stakes in a sector that will likely be larger than the fossil fuel industry by the end of this century.

Nuclear outperforms fossil fuels on every critical metric that matters to humanity—including value/price because fossil fuels don’t safely store their waste, the way nuclear does and if they had to, they would be much more expensive. Advanced designs will improve on nuclear’s stellar historical performance with: low carbon/zero emissions, firm reliable energy, zero toxic air pollutants, low/small ecologic footprint, weather resilience, strong fuel security, walk-away safe performance, quality job creation, scalable and manufactured designs that reduce construction risk and finance costs, flexible sizing and energy output options that can meet a broader array of energy needs, stable pricing and profitable operations.  The best time to invest is when most everyone else is less informed and does not recognize the value proposition as well as you do.

“The looming twin challenges of climate change and energy production are too big to be tackled by known solutions and time-­honored traditions. Incremental remedies are fine for incremental problems, but they are insufficient for monumental, potentially life-­altering threats, which need to be approached with a disruptive mindset. There are 5 billion people coveting the energy-rich lifestyles currently enjoyed by 500 million people, mostly in the developed world. Incremental technology progress will not satisfy this craving. We need non-linear jumps in technologies – technological Black Swans!  We can invent these future technologies.”

Rather than standardize around one design and size, many people expect that there will be a number of commercial designs that energy buyers will be able to select from. Thus, other benefits to the growth of advanced nuclear include:

1. More styles, sizes and types of technology to pick from to help decarbonize a broader range of energy needs.
   
   
2. In addition to providing steam that produces electricity, some designs will produce high-temperature steam that can be used directly for industrial proceses heat. For many manufacturing plants, advanced nuclear’s steam may be the only way to do their work without burning coal or gas.
   
   
3. Some advanced designs will utilize fast neutrons which will be able to generate energy from spent nuclear fuel—which is widely called “nuclear waste.”  We pay good money to store these materials but only about 5% of the inherent energy has been used. Fast reactors can utilize and reduce stockpiles of this unused fuel material, reduce costs of maintaining it and reduce the need to extract new minerals for use as fuel.
   
   
4. Modular designs are expected to be produced in factories and shipped as pre-manufactured component to the build site, so they will require the creation of more U.S. factories to do this production and so the industry is projected to create many good jobs as it grows.
   
   
5. Assuming the U.S. gets its act together, exporting advanced reactors will require bi-lateral agreements that could help improve our exports and help us build more stable democracies in regions that seek to deploy advanced nuclear. 

While nuclear innovation has been on the rebound for more than a decade, news from developers rarely gets covered by mainstream media, so you may have to subscribe to an industry newsletter (ANS Nuclear SmartBrief, World Nuclear News, NuclearNewswire, etc.) in order to stay abreast of what is going on.  Fortunately, taboos against discussing nuclear are quickly diminishing with the result that now more news outlets than ever are covering the topic.

There’s a lot of work being done around the world to try to commercialize advanced nuclear designs. While there’s nothing stopping this development process, there is a lot that slows it down, such as: limited access to capital; limited number of test facilities; still nascent capabilities of nuclear regulators to understand the features of new designs; access to advanced fuel as a result of Russia’s assault on Ukraine; and reluctance of customers to order first-of-a-kind plants.

Advanced nuclear designs are now on track for demonstration units to be built mid-decade and sales commitments to begin being received, with commercial builds coming online in at the end of the decade or early 2030s.  While it would be better if these designs were available now, by the end of this decade, demand will be even stronger, as the dire consequences of climate change will likely have impacted everyone. The urgency to end all fossil fuel extraction and use will be at its height and, while harsh consequences may already have been felt, people will still want to do whatever is possible to reverse the damage we’ve done.

Nuclear energy waste is functionally a non-issue, given that it is safely stored and impacts no one. In stark contrast, fossil fuels’ waste—toxic chemicals, particulants, radioactive coal ash and carbon emissions—have been shown to cause almost half of all air pollution deaths, an estimated 4 million premature deaths, plus are heating our climate. Climate change as a result of fossil fuel waste, is responsible for massive species die-off, ecologic changes such as ocean acidification and mounting global death and destruction from extreme weather events. That’s a really big waste issue. Those who wish to mask and hide the impacts of fossil fuel use try to make nuclear waste out to be bigger and worse than it is, something to be feared more than millions of deaths every year.

Nuclear waste is not an issue but its politicization is. While there may be political disagreements about how and where, there are no unsolved technological issues involved. We know how to store these metallic rods safely and have been doing it without any problem for more than sixty years. We also have newer waste storage options being introduced as well as new reactor designs that can extract energy from the waste and use it as fuel.

(In contrast, the radioactive waste improperly disposed of during the U.S. Government’s rush efforts to develop the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project, have caused problems to those in the surrounding communities. These sites need to be properly cleaned up and compensated but these are not related to the subsequent use of nuclear energy.)

Of course, but that is the same for any new technology. No one has ever said that the high cost of the first prototyped iPhone means that there won’t be a market for the product.  All technologies see declining costs as production numbers increase. Advanced nuclear, because of its smaller sizes, will be able to travel down the cost curve much more quickly than the prior generation of power plants, each of which were distinctly different builds and were not designed for pre-fabrication or mass-production.  Eventually, advanced nuclear power will be one of the lost-cost energy sources known to man but, in the interim, recent studies have shown that the existence of firm clean power on any grid, even if more expensive, will make the total cost of decarbonization of that grid cheaper.

We have about 10,000 years of nuclear fuel available from known uranium resources, including a considerable amount dissolved in sea water. Experts have estimated that there is as much as 1,000 years of energy locked up in the unused fuel that remains in existing spent fuel rods. Decommissioning all nuclear weapons can supply perhaps several hundred years worth of power. Then there is thorium, an common mineral resource, that can been found on every continent, which can augment uranium fuel supplies.

That remains unknown. Fusion researchers are clearly making progress. This has raised expectations and funding levels and leads many to believe that such efforts will lead to the successful production of “net energy” (more energy out than in) from fusion within the decade. Unfortunately, fusion has never once had net energy, despite some six or so decades of rigorous research efforts.

Achieving net energy will then start the clock on the next phases, working to design an operable system that can reliably produce usable electricity cost-effectively. Depending upon how “net energy” was achieved, this could be a very lengthy process. That will need to be followed by commercial testing and regulatory reviews. We can hope fusion designs become reality but whether that is by the end of this decade or within the next two or three decades no one knows.

LENR is a third type of nuclear energy which has eluded precise scientific definition. Once called “cold fusion,” unsupported early claims that left the science of cold fusion largely discredited. Now, three decades along, scientists have a much greater understanding of the phenomena that involves metal lattices and complex interactions where, through a special mix of reactants and metals, a sudden burst of energy is triggered. Variously called Low Energy Nucear Reactions (LENR), Solid State Nuclear or Lattice Confinement Fusion (LCF), there are more than 100 organizations including NASA and the DOE engaged in this research.

There are dozens if not hundreds of initiatives that endeavor to help people learn the truth about nuclear energy.  Unfortunately, there are likely as many sites trying to spread inaccurate information to keep people feeling afraid of nuclear, when the reality of nuclear is that it is a life and environment-enhancing technology.  Reliable sources include:

• • • The Department of Energy: Office of Nuclear Energy
    • The Nuclear Energy Institute:  Fundamentals
    • The International Energy Agency: Nuclear
    • The Nuclear Innovation Alliance
    • Nuclear Matters
    • Clean Air Task Force: Advanced Nuclear Energy
    • ClearPath: Nuclear
    • Third Way: Climate & Energy
    • The Breakthrough Institute: Energy
    • Good Energy Collective
    • Energy Impact Center
    • University of Michigan: Fastest Path to Zero