Workshop on nuclear options
In July, Brian Smith, assistant secretary for nuclear reactors in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, spoke at the East Tennessee Economic Council’s Nuclear Opportunities Workshop in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, about the administration’s efforts to, if not restart, then perhaps revitalize nuclear energy development in the United States.
Many of the development programs and financing opportunities for nuclear power predate the recent focus on the significant power needs of the data center industry.
Smith noted the importance of investing in public/private development initiatives, acknowledging that efforts originally funded in 2020 through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), which supported cost-sharing programs with industry partners, have recently begun to deliver groundbreaking work and develop into tangible potential assets for power generation.
The ARDP leverages the capabilities of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s National Reactor Innovation Center, which works with DOE’s seventeen existing national laboratories to study the challenges and address issues that hinder progress in nuclear energy development.
Secretary Smith explained that in his role at the Department of Energy, he often sits with data center companies who tell him they are really interested in nuclear power – but don’t really know what that means.
He jokingly explained that “a lot of their knowledge comes from watching The Simpsons.”
More seriously, he notes that he often puts the current state of nuclear power into context, identifying the large-scale reactors that represent current power generation facilities, and explaining how microreactors and small modular reactors (SMRs) might fit into the future plans of these data center companies.
Where does the money go?
Part of the funds for the expansion of nuclear energy were intended for very basic things.
For example, the 2023 national security supplemental budget allocated $2.7 billion to increase domestic uranium enrichment, which is critical to the operation of nuclear power plants.
Most commercial nuclear reactors use low-enriched uranium (LEU – 3-5% fissile U235 isotope) sourced from three different domestic sites. This investment is absolutely critical to the future of domestic nuclear energy.
Highly enriched, low-grade uranium (HALEU – 5–20% U235) is used in many new advanced reactor designs, including several SMR and microreactor designs that have been proposed and are currently under development.
However, as news reports earlier this year indicated, one of the few sources of readily available HALEU fuel is purchasing it from Russia, which is not a very practical solution given the current global political situation.
In addition, funds will be spent to further advance the public-private partnership aspect of the available resources.
Smith told us, “There was someone in this industry that I respect a lot. He said, ‘Hey, you know, there’s one thing I’m missing at the Department of Energy: You’re all really good at research and development, at everything you do in the labs, at everything you do to support demonstrations – but you’re all not so good at commercialization.'”
To address this industry concern, the 2024 budget provides $900 million for projects to effectively deploy a Generation 3+ SMR, including $800 million, provided that the primary applicant for funding must be a utility.
Smith added: “We want the utilities to partner with the technology providers, show us their best ideas and then actually roll out a 3rd generation and higher SMR.”
He also noted that this idea represents a shift in thinking from the Department of Energy’s perspective, encouraging active efforts by commercial utilities to join forces with many of the Department of Energy’s startup-funded partners in the advanced nuclear energy space.
What’s next?
It’s clear that the data center industry is taking nuclear power seriously. Hyperscalers Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all expressed strong interest in using nuclear energy.
Amazon purchased land near a nuclear power plant from Talen Energy earlier this year. Microsoft and Google have partnered with Nucor on clean energy projects. Bill Gates has spent $2 billion through his nuclear startup TerraPower to match the federal government’s $2 billion, and we’ve reported on many of the letters of intent signed with startup Oklo to add significant power capacity to data centers.
Many of the leading nuclear start-ups plan to commission demonstration reactors in the next two to three years, with the aim of being fully equipped to generate electricity by early 2030.
This tells us there is no easy answer. It is not just a technological issue, as all eyes will continue to be on the NRC and the licensing process for commercial nuclear deployment. Changes are being made, but the extended, multi-decade timeline that many commercial reactors have had in the past is unacceptable for future deployments.
Speakers representing the government at the conference indicated that this is also an issue that the Department of Energy and the National Council of Energy (NRC) will be addressing – hopefully in time to meet the energy needs of the data center industry and the rest of the country.
