Utilities and the Caution in Nuclear Development

The nuclear renaissance of the 2000s turned out to be something of a mirage. Buoyed by rising fossil gas prices, growing climate awareness, and steady load growth, nuclear seemed poised for a breakout moment. But that momentum stalled. Electricity demand flatlined. The fracking boom sent gas prices plummeting. And Fukushima rattled public confidence in nuclear power. Ultimately, only two new reactors, Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Georgia, reached completion over a decade later.

So is this latest wave of nuclear hype any different?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Chris Colbert, CEO of Elementl Power, which on Wednesday announced a deal with Google to develop three nuclear projects of at least 600-megawatts each. (Energy Impact Partners, where Shayle is a partner, is an investor in Elementl.) Chris, a former executive at NuScale Power, thinks last year may have marked the start of a nuclear revival: the recommissioning of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island and Michigan’s Holtec Palisades; Big Tech deals to support small modular reactor development; and the start of construction on TerraPower’s Wyoming reactor, the Western Hemisphere’s first advanced nuclear facility.

But until new reactors move beyond one-off projects to serial deployment, nuclear won’t achieve the cost reductions needed for widespread adoption. Chris and Shayle discuss what it will take to turn this groundswell of activity into widespread deployment, covering topics like:

• Current tailwinds, like load growth and interest from corporate buyers

• Why corporate buyers may be better positioned than utilities to take on development risks

• Elementl’s technology-agnostic approach

• Different nuclear technologies — light water, non-light water, and advanced designs — and Chris’s predictions for when they’ll reach commercialization

• Why iteration is essential to driving down costs (and why the Google deal involves three separate projects)

• How regulatory timelines are speeding up

• The steps of project development with a corporate buyer

• Chris’s criteria for site selection — and why attracting skilled labor ranks surprisingly high

Resources:

• Latitude Media: Was 2024 really the year of nuclear resurgence?

• Latitude Media: Is large-scale nuclear poised for a comeback?

• Catalyst: The cost of nuclear

• Latitude Media: Trump’s DOE is reupping Biden-era funding for small modular nuclear reactors

• Latitude Media: Utah bets on a new developer to revive its small modular reactor ambitions

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

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