Overview
Nuclear power, while becoming a significant part of the nation’s energy mix, has never supplied the plurality of the country’s electricity. Today, however, as the need for clean, abundant energy becomes sharper than ever, nuclear power is getting a second look. The potential for the nuclear energy is great. But, as this Tech Talk explores, there are significant challenges facing wider deployment and implementation. Even so, use of nuclear energy has the potential to revolutionize the nation’s energy infrastructure, lifting Tennessee and the nation economically in the process.
Key Session Insights
Nuclear energy is the future. Brian Wirth—the Governor’s Chair Professor for Computational Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville—invited Competitiveness Conversation participants to imagine a future in which the majority of the country’s power comes from nuclear energy. The density of energy provided by nuclear fuel far outstrips any other power source, creating the opportunity to produce an abundance of clean, reliable power with a comparatively small geographic footprint.
Nuclear plants are also somewhat versatile in where they can be placed, needing a reliable water source to operate safely. A nuclear power plant can always be “on,” providing a steady stream of electricity at all hours and in all conditions, removing the need for the potentially complex and expensive power storage facilities renewable sources often require.
As newer, larger, more power-intensive data centers come online and as electric vehicles increasingly shift the energy burden of transport to the grid, power consumption is expected to double by 2050 in Tennessee. This will require a dramatic expansion of baseload power, especially as communities decommission coal plants. But as nuclear power re-enters the public consciousness, Wirth believes there is an opportunity to begin to invest in the technology at levels not seen in decades.
“There is no discussion that does not include nuclear. Nuclear is clean, it is safe, it is resilient, it is always on, and it is an important part of the diversity of supply.”
Brian Wirth
Governor’s Chair Professor for Computational Nuclear Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
However, the growth and proliferation of nuclear energy faces major policy, investment, and talent hurdles. Beginning with regulatory constraints, Wirth notes that approval for nuclear power plants and ongoing regulatory compliance are enormously high barriers that make a large-scale buildout of nuclear infrastructure expensive, time consuming, and risky.
For example, while the United States has only recently started to build a handful of nuclear power plants, such as the new units at the Vogtle power station in Georgia, the cost overruns and long timelines have exposed what Wirth called an “atrophied” capacity for nuclear plant construction. This is happening even as other nations, such as the UAE and South Korea, complete twice as many reactors in the same time and with two-thirds of the budget, demonstrating that it is not an issue with nuclear power itself, but with the red tape in the United States today.
Despite the headwinds, there is significant work underway to ensure nuclear power is ready to meet the expanding demand for clean energy.Nuclear engineering college programs, including at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are expanding and attracting greater student interest. Enrollment in the program Wirth leads has more than tripled over the past decade. Alongside student interest is greater investment in the research of nuclear technologies. Designs for novel fission reactors and modular nuclear plants are being created. And fusion power, the holy grail of clean energy technologies, is being strenuously pursued.
While Wirth, his colleagues, and his students are all enthusiastic about nuclear fusion, he stressed that, if achieved, it is critical to have the infrastructure and regulatory systems in place to scale rapidly this technology. If not, fusion power expansion will face the same roadblocks that traditional fission plants have, making finding capital investment difficult. He also notes that for nuclear to be the power source of the future, we need secure, resilient supply chains. Investing now in key materials and educational programs to produce tomorrow’s nuclear engineers and technicians will allow us to hit the ground running when these technologies become viable.
The fact that Tennessee is ahead of many other states in nuclear should be no surprise. The state sits at the nexus of several R1 educational institutions, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and more than 150 nuclear industry firms. In fact, many of Wirth’s “Top 10” nuclear energy facts highlight the need for partnerships and investments made in nuclear innovation and education in the state. Here’s the Wirth’s Top 10 list:
Wirth concluded that Tennessee has a unique opportunity to serve as a leader in the nuclear power renaissance, especially in the Southeast where clean energy is, for now, lagging. Investing in nuclear energy is a uniquely Tennessee approach to addressing the sustainability challenge the state and the nation faces.
Rather than going all in on renewables that may or may not be ideal for Tennessee, the state is instead leveraging its established and growing nuclear talent and business pools to build a new power sector where it already has a competitive advantage. In doing so, the state has the potential to not only meet its own needs, but stake a claim on an industry that will be critical for the nation’s future energy needs.
