According to Nuclear Newswire, Talen Energy announced the sale of Cumulus Data Assets, its 960-megawatt data center campus to cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, for $650 million. Cumulus sits on a 1,200-acre campus in Pennsylvania and is directly powered by the adjacent Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, which generates 2.5 gigawatts of power.
“We believe this is a transformative transaction with long term benefits,” said Mark “Mac” McFarland, Talen president and chief executive officer of Talen, on a Monday call with investors and media. As power demand continues to rise worldwide, “data centers are at the heart of that growth,” he added.
“Several years ago, Amazon set an ambitious goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040—ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. As part of that goal, we’re on a path to power our operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original 2030 target,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “To supplement our wind and solar energy projects, which depend on weather conditions to generate energy, we’re also exploring new innovations and technologies and investing in other sources of clean, carbon-free energy. This agreement with Talen Energy for carbon-free energy is one project in that effort.”
The Susquehanna nuclear power plant is the sixth largest nuclear power plant in the United States and produces 63 million kilowatt hours per day. Its two General Electric boiling water reactors have been on line since 1983 and are licensed to operate through 2042 and 2044, respectively. Talen, its majority owner, is a Houston, Texas-based company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2022 as part of a financial restructuring. The company exited bankruptcy in 2023, and officials have said that this recent transaction with AWS is a boost to its cash flow. After paying off debts, interest and other costs, Talen expects net proceeds of $361 million from the deal with Amazon.
Sheffield's new technology is geared for faster and better fabrication of the pressure vessels that hold the nuclear fuel and where the nuclear reaction takes place. These thick steel containers provide the first level barrier of containment for the nuclear process and radioactive fuel materials and transuranics. Traditionally, creating such vessels required a time-consuming and expensive forging and welding process.
Sheffield Forgemasters' innovative local electron beam welding technique dramatically improves both the process and the quality of the weld by utilizing a particle gun to shoot a very precise beam of high-energy electrons that joins materials at the atomic level without needing to add material, resulting in a faster, stronger and more perfect welds in vessels up to 8 inches thick, that may not even require inspections. This can greatly reduce both the cost and time that it takes to fabricate nuclear pressure vessels while simultaneously producing vessels that are more reliable and longer-lasting.
Sheffield isn't the only group that has been working to improve nuclear technology and capabilities. There are probably hundreds of groups around the world working on the myriad aspects of the nuclear energy industry's challenges, improving communications and even educating the broader community. Nuclear power is just starting to benefit from the advancements provided by the digital age, starting with far more powerful software capabilities that can help with design, testing, modeling, analyses, rendering and reporting. In the future, virtual twinning, remote monitoring, and the use of artificial intelligence, such as that being developed by NuclearN to optimize operations, update procedures, reduce risks through predictive maintenance, conduct AI-based training and many other operations, will increase capabilities and reduce costs both for designing new reactors and for their long-term operations.
Additionally, even as the Congress is working to better rationalize nuclear regulation and reduce its costs by passing a reconciled version of the Senate's bipartisan ADVANCE Act with the version passed by the House, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, developers are already looking at deploying and utilizing a plethora of advanced capabilities to accelerate development times and reduce build and operational costs. These include:
Utilizing nano technolologies, miniaturization, automation, and robotics in manufacturing and handling radioactive materials.
Using 3-D printing and other advanced fabrication technologies to enable rapid design iteration, fast fabrication of unique components
Deploying advanced materials that improve performance while reducing size, weight, production steps and/or production costs
Use of more sophisticated test equipment and faster data analysis
Leveraging technological improvements developed by other industries, such as how Deep Isolation utilizes geologic analysis, horizontal drilling, borehole stabilization and capping technologies developed by the oil and gas industry
Improving community engagement processes to design and deliver more thoughtful, inclusive, socially just and hence successful engagement processes that build trust and two-way communication.
Nucleation Capital believes that the pressure to decarbonize energy presents one of the largest economic opportunities humanity has ever seen. Nucleation will also invest in a wide range of these vertical supply and support ventures, such as NuclearN and Deep Isolation.
The NZIA aims to speed up the deployment of technologies that can contribute to meeting the EU’s net-zero emissions target. This is seen as a direct response by the EU to the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act and efforts by other countries, including China, to become global leaders in the manufacturing of clean technologies like batteries, heat pumps and solar panels.
The NZIA aims to accelerate permitting procedures for industrial production sites involved in the manufacturing of components needed for renewable energy technologies, but also for nuclear power.
Negotiators representing the Parliament, the Council, and the European Commission confirmed on Tuesday the “strategic” nature of projects relating to nuclear energy, which are included in a single list of 17 net-zero technologies that will benefit from the NZIA.
French MEP Christophe Grudler who took part in the talks for the centrist Renew Europe group in Parliament, explained that each EU country will be sovereign in defining the projects that will be considered strategic on its territory, and thus which will benefit from faster permitting and simplified administrative rules.
However, as a result of the negotiations, “the two types of energy (namely, renewable and nuclear) are finally being treated equally as part of the reindustrialisation process,” Grudler rejoiced.
The agreement encompasses both traditional nuclear nuclear technologies as well as future third and fourth generation designs, i.e. small modular reactors (SMRs) and other types of advanced nuclear reactors and their corresponding fuel cycles.
“The message is clear: the EU recognises that we need nuclear power to achieve the objectives of the Green Deal,” the French MEP told Euractiv.
The plan is to deploy four Westinghouse AP300 small modular reactors on a site on the north bank of the River Tees, in Teesside, U.K. The local authorities are backing the company's plan to locate the new plant on a site was previously home to a chemical plant and adjacent to the renowned Saltholme bird reserve. The new facility may be welcomed, in fact, as a way to help clean up both the air and the water in the area, since nuclear power emits no toxic chemical or carbon dioxide emissions.
Community Nuclear Power evaluated options from a number of SMR developers, most likely including Rolls-Royce and EDF, which is developing an SMR based largely on reactors already being built and used for nuclear-powered submarines. The company, however, is reported as having inked a deal with Westinghouse, although the formal announcement has to be made.
According to a company representative, the plan will be fully privately financed and will not be seeking government or taxpayer support. Nevertheless, it is a step along the path that was recently set out by the U.K. government's recently issued Civil Nuclear Roadmap, originally championed by former prime minister, Boris Johnson, which references SMRs and their advantages for expediting deployment because they are smaller and can be made in factories and shipped in modules to the construction site, making construction faster and less expensive.
According to Jonathan Leake, writing in The Telegraph (and reposted by Yahoo Finance), there is a definite chance that the Community Nuclear Power project, if successful, could be in operation ahead of both Hinkley Point C, already in construction in Somerset but delayed, and Sizewell C, already being planned for the Suffolk coast and putting 1.5 Gigawatts of power onto the grid by the early 2030s. It would likely benefit from the government's commitment to accelerate the deployment process towards achieving a quadrupling of U.K. nuclear power.
This is an exciting development for those working to commercialize SMRs and will most certainly be a boost to others looking to accelerate the deployment of clean energy around the world with privately financed SMR projects.
Sweden previously announced its intentions to expand the amount of nuclear power used in the country with the construction of new nuclear generating capacity equivalent by 2 gigawatts (approximately two large-scale reactors) by 2035 and up to 10 gigawatts (about ten new large-scale reactors) coming online by 2045. In November, the Swedish parliament approved the bill that allows new reactors at existing and new sites starting in 2024. Now, Swedish Energy & Industry Minister Ebba Busch has taken bold action to help ensure the success of this key governmental initiative, with the appointment of Carl Berglöf as national nuclear power coordinator.
Berglöf, who recently won the 2023 Honorary Award of the Swedish Nuclear Society in recognition of fifteen years of work in the nuclear field and who has been a nuclear advisor at the industry organisation Energiföretagen Sweden since 2017, will start his new position as national nuclear power coordinator on February 1st.
This job will involve supporting the Swedish government in its work to reach the goal of expanding nuclear power, including serving as a single point of contact with regards to nuclear matters, suggesting ways to accelerate the process, pushing for any supplementary measures that are required to get the job done, and communicating about the initiative to the public. From our perspective, this new appointment promises to be a shining example to the rest of the world about how to improve the process of managing an ambitious expansion of nuclear power, that may well include both traditional gridscale and advanced nuclear designs.
In this capacity, Berglöf will have until 2026 to lay the foundation for the expansion approved by the Riksdag (legislature), which "shares the Government’s assessment that fossil-free electricity from nuclear power will also continue to play a role of central importance in the Swedish energy mix. The main reasons for this are an expected greater demand for electricity in combination with the fact that fossil fuels have to be phased out, particularly for climate reasons. Nuclear power also contributes to the stable and predictable functioning of the Swedish power system."
This move is being widely applauded by the nuclear community and the world's eyes are now on Sweden as a leading actor on the global climate stage, moving aggressively towards its decarbonization goals. Given this, we have to believe that part of Carl's new role will be providing guidance and support to other countries seeking to make similar appointments that can help to accelerate their own pathways to decarbonizing their grids with expansions of nuclear power.
Though not the firm commitment to "phase out" fossil fuels that many attendees were hoping for, this agreement nevertheless goes further in specifically calling for nations to begin reducing their dependence upon fossil fuels than any other prior agreement did. Now, the question becomes "how can such a transition happen" without compromising the reliability of the grid? The answer was not provided in the text of the agreement. But the answer was provided in the pledges made during the conference: a tripling of nuclear power, renewables and energy efficiency. Increasingly, nations will be looking to see how they can replace fossil fuels with another energy source that is equally as firm and reliable. They will eventually find their way to nuclear power if they don't already have hydro or geothermal resources.
Recognizing the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions / carbon neutrality by or around mid-century and in keeping a 1.5°C limit on temperature rise within reach and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7;
Recognizing the importance of the applications of nuclear science and technology that contribute to monitoring climate change and tackling its impacts, and emphasizing the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in this regard;
Recognizing that nuclear energy is already the second-largest source of clean dispatchable baseload power, with benefits for energy security;
Recognizing that analyses from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and World Nuclear Association show that global installed nuclear energy capacity must triple by 2050 in order to reach global net-zero emissions by the same year;
Recognizing that analysis from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows nuclear energy approximately tripling its global installed electrical capacity from 2020 to 2050 in the average 1.5°C scenario;
Recognizing that analysis from the International Energy Agency shows nuclear power more than doubling from 2020 to 2050 in global net-zero emissions by 2050 scenarios and shows that decreasing nuclear power would make reaching net zero more difficult and costly;
Recognizing that new nuclear technologies could occupy a small land footprint and can be sited where needed, partner well with renewable energy sources, and have additional flexibilities that support decarbonization beyond the power sector, including hard-to-abate industrial sectors;
Recognizing the IAEA’s activities in supporting its Member States, upon request, to include nuclear power in their national energy planning in a sustainable way that adheres to the highest standards of safety, security, and safeguards and its “Atoms4NetZero” initiative as an opportunity for stakeholders to exchange expertise;
Recognizing the importance of financing for the additional nuclear power capacity needed to keep a 1.5°C limit on temperature rise within reach;
Recognizing the need for high-level political engagement to spur further action on nuclear power;
The Participants in this pledge:
Commit to work together to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050, recognizing the different domestic circumstances of each Participant;
Commit to take domestic actions to ensure nuclear power plants are operated responsibly and in line with the highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation, and that fuel waste is responsibly managed for the long term;
Commit to mobilize investments in nuclear power, including through innovative financing mechanisms;
Invite shareholders of the World Bank, international financial institutions, and regional development banks to encourage the inclusion of nuclear energy in their organizations’ energy lending policies as needed, and to actively support nuclear power when they have such a mandate, and encourage regional bodies that have the mandate to do so to consider providing financial support to nuclear energy;
Commit to supporting the development and construction of nuclear reactors, such as small modular and other advanced reactors for power generation as well as wider industrial applications for decarbonization, such as for hydrogen or synthetic fuels production;
Recognize the importance of promoting resilient supply chains, including of fuel, for safe and secure technologies used by nuclear power plants over their full life cycles;
Recognize the importance, where technically feasible and economically efficient, of extending the lifetimes of nuclear power plants that operate in line with the highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation, as appropriate;
Commit to supporting responsible nations looking to explore new civil nuclear deployment under the highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation;
Welcomeand encourage complementary commitments from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, development banks, and financial institutions;
Resolve to review progress towards these commitments on an annual basis on the margins of the COP;
Call on other countries to join this declaration.
"We know from science, the reality of facts and evidence that we cannot achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 without nuclear power." — John Kerry, US Climate Envoy
“First, i want to reiterate the fact that NUCLEAR ENERGY IS CLEAN ENERGY. it should be repeated. Nuclear energy is also a stable form of energy which means it’s a perfect complement to renewables. Because of nuclear energy, our (France’s) electricity is one of the cleanest in the world.” — Emmanuel Macron, President of France
"We aim to build new Nuclear Energy equal to 2500 MW by 2035 & equal to at least x10 large reactors by 2045. In other words, Sweden is open for business in new Nuclear Energy." — Ebba Busch, Deputy Prime Ministera of Sweden
To receive this reporting from the #COP28 conference in Dubai, you can follow members of this crowd (and others not shown) on Twitter:
According to Alexander C. Kaufman in "A Massive U.S.-Led Pledge Could Be A Global Gamechanger," published in the Huffington Post on November 16th, signatories to the pledge, set to be unveiled at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai later this month, include many of the largest current users of nuclear energy such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and South Korea. A handful of "newcomer countries," countries that have not yet built reactors, including Poland, Ghana and Morocco, are also said to have joined the pledge.
The plan will put pressure on the World Bank to end its long-standing ban on financing nuclear-energy projects and it will take a match to the plans of many of the worlds largest funders of fossil fuel projects, both banks and institutional LPs, who will find that the global appetite for nuclear power is growing by virtue of pressure to address the problems of climate change, which are being caused by the continued use of fossil fuels.
(Click to hear Dr. Katy Huff say the U.S. needs to triple its nuclear power to meet its climate goals.)
The Biden White House, according to Jackie Toth, the deputy director of Good Energy Collective, a progressive pronuclear think tank, has adopted what Toth described as a “concerted whole-of-government effort” to “support nuclear energy as an important component of a clean-energy transition.”
According to Kaufman, the nuclear pledge represents one of the most ambitious attempts by the U.S. yet to reassert itself as an exporter of atomic energy technology. For decades, Russia has dominated the export market, with its state-owned Rosatom nuclear company offering a one-stop shop for reactors, uranium fuel and financing. Nearly one-third of the roughly 60 reactors under construction worldwide are Russian designs, including the debut nuclear plants underway in Turkey, Egypt and Bangladesh. Moscow’s virtual monopoly over key types of nuclear fuel has made Rosatom immune to the sanctions the U.S. and Europe have piled on Russian gas, oil and mineral exports in the nearly two years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
[Aside: According to the World Nuclear Association, in addition to the 60 plants in construction, another 110 nuclear power plants are in the planning stages and some additional 300 reactors are being proposed by some 33 nuclear countries or the 30 or so "newcomer countries" that are looking to add nuclear to their energy systems.
Separately, the US is also working to build an international pact, co-led by the European Union and the UAE, to triple renewables. President Biden announced an agreement with China to triple world capacity of renewable power during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S. in early November. There are now more than 70 countries that have agreed to the renewable energy pledge.
Lastly, Biden is trying to build commitments from other nationals for the deployment of carbon capture technology. In other words, he's focused on all of the right areas to buttress the world's clean energy capabilities and to begin to reduce the accumulations of carbon dioxide. Bravo, Mr. President.
Many of those trying to gauge investor interest look at spot Uranium prices, believing that these are a barometer for investor interest in nuclear. The fact that the spot price rose 55% between January and October speak loudly about the shifting sentiments and prospects for nuclear power.
According to Cameco's website, the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, “Ongoing geopolitical events coupled with the global focus on the climate crisis have created what we believe are transformative tailwinds for the nuclear power industry, from both a demand and supply perspective.” Not surprisingly, Uranium spot prices stood at $74.38 per pound at the end of October, based on month-end prices published by nuclear research companies UxC and TradeTech, up from just $18 in October 2016 and $47.68 at the end of 2022. According to Morningstar, nuclear related exchange traded funds were the best performing ETFs, with Sprott Uraniaum Miners ETF (URNM) gaining 13% over the summer.
Back in May, Bank of America’s Research Investment Committee (RIC) forecast a 20 to 40% upside on uranium and nuclear power after a decade of underinvestment. Bank of America published its research findings in a report called "The Nuclear Necessity" and pointed out that global demand for nuclear had grown with 60 new reactors being built, 100 more approved and plans for old reactors to be refurbished, adding to the positive investor sentiment.
The entire global economy is, in fact, poised to move into a new period of increased interest in building nuclear, premised upon macroeconomic forces that include "resource nationalism, energy security, war and inflation." According to Jared Woodard, Bank of America's Investment and ETF Strategist, "Every analyst I spoke to was bullish on prospects for nuclear power as a technology that's clean and meets the kinds of goals that so many policymakers are eager to hit in terms of reducing emissions."
Both sides of the political spectrum see the beneifts of nuclear, progressives like the low emissions and highly reliable capacity of nuclear for addressing climate change and conservatives like the national and energy security aspects. [Aside: What's been working in the U.S. Congress is that both Democrats and Republicans vote in support of bills that both protect existing and help next-generation nuclear power using voice votes. Pronuclear bills have been passed with bipartisan majorities in every administration since Barack Obama's, with the Biden Administration doing the most good to level the playing field for nuclear. Virtually every elected official supports nuclear but progressives still find it harder to explain their support to their constituents. Less so with Republicans.]
Bank of America's Research Investment Committee issued a landmark report on May 9th to its securities clients entitled "The Nuclear Necessity," finding evidence of increasing demand and giving a bold "BUY" recommendation for nuclear and uranium. (Note: Initially, only a summary image of the top-line take-aways was shared on Twitter. More recently, BofA has chosen to share the report online.)
This report gave a bullish assessment of the nuclear power industry and its new growth prospects. (Note: Initially, a summary image of the top-line take-aways was shared on Twitter. More recently, BofA has chosen to share the report online.) The entire report is worth reviewing but there were two bullish catalysts not priced into the market in the analysts' opinion: 1) a potential G7 sanction on Russian uranium and 2) policy shifts towards nuclear "as the best climate solution."
We are very excited to see this analysis by a big bank and expect that many others will follow, as it has become clear that nuclear has hit an inflection point. We also believe there are several other very important catalysts not included in the BofA analysis. Reach out to us if you'd like to learn more about what we are seeing happening in the public markets and especially if you are intrigued to participate in the growing private markets. Nucleation provides investors with several unique vehicles which enable affordable access to the nascent but growing areas of deep tech innovation, expansion and improvement of collateral support, supply and integration services through our venture fund offerings.
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