Nuclear is strategic imperative for USA, says NEI

Preserving existing nuclear capacity and preparing to build large amounts of new nuclear capacity in the next decade are strategic imperatives for the USA, the Nuclear Energy Institute has told the US Department of Energy.

The NEI called for reforms to electricity markets and a systematic effort to create the conditions necessary to deploy advanced reactor technologies in comments submitted to the DOE, as it prepares the next instalment of its Quadrennial Energy Review (QER). "A continuing, growing contribution from nuclear energy is essential to produce needed baseload electricity at stable prices and to sustain reductions in emissions of carbon and other pollutants," it said.

The QER process was established by presidential memorandum in 2014 and aims to engage federal agencies and outside stakeholders while enabling federal government to translate policy goals into a set of analytically based, integrated actions for proposed investments over a four-year planning horizon. The first QER, published in 2015, examined the USA's infrastructure for energy transmission, storage, and distribution, including liquid and natural gas pipelines, the electricity grid, and transport links. The second instalment will focus on the electricity system to produce a set of findings and policy recommendations to help guide modernization of the grid and ensure its continued reliability, safety, security, affordability, and environmental performance in the period to 2040. It is due to be released later this year.

In its 58-page submission, the NEI recommended that the QER should begin by developing an inventory of challenges facing the US electric power sector. Fuel and technology diversity - essential for a robust and resilient system - is at risk of being lost; increasing dependence on natural gas for electricity generation, thereby exposing consumers to price volatility and loss of reliability; the failure of merchant markets to provide the price signals necessary to stimulate investment in new capacity the continued operation of existing capacity; and "significant changes" to the electricity landscape over the next few decades as much of today's generating capacity reaches retirement age.

It drew particular attention to the costs of shutting down existing power plants. The negative effects of reactor closures - 14 units have been shut down or announced their closure in recent years - are already being felt in terms of loss of fuel and technology diversity, higher electricity costs and higher carbon emissions, it said. It described the "progressive loss" of fuel and technology diversity and the "ever-increasing dependence on natural gas" as a "disturbing trend".

Capacity from zero-emissions nuclear plants which have closed down is usually replaced with carbon-emitting gas-fired plants, so shutting nuclear plants results in higher emissions. Renewable sources lack the scale and, thanks to their intermittency, the reliability of nuclear which provides dispatchable baseload power to the grid. The NEI said that nuclear electricity, with its unique attributes and value to the grid, should be seen as a "premium product".

The NEI emphasized that short-term, unsustainable, price signals rather than long-term market fundamentals are the reason for many recent premature closures of nuclear power plants. "Market conditions are forcing companies to make decisions that our nation will regret for the next 20 or 30 years, or longer," it said.

Action plan

The NEI outlined a number of ways in which it said federal and state policymakers could help to preserve existing nuclear generating assets. These included providing incentives for capacity; minimizing the effects of subsidies by providing tax credits to place carbon-free nuclear on a level playing field with carbon-free renewables; properly valuing nuclear output for its "uniquely valuable" attributes; and considering adopting state-level zero-carbon clean energy standards. Existing plants wanting to secure a second licence renewal could be supported through financial incentives and a predictable and more efficient regulatory regime, it said.

It called for the USA to "capitalize" on lessons learned during construction new reactors in at Vogtle in Georgia Summer in South Carolina. When Vogtle and Summer. "Since the licensing process will have been tested on these first projects, and since the next projects will have already received and banked their [construction and operating licences] for a design that is already certified, it should be possible to reduce time-to-market to the time required for construction," it said.

The government should also do more to help support new nuclear technologies, the NEI said. It said the DOE's current Licensing Technical Support program - a 50-50 cost-shared program aiming to carry a single small modular reactor through NRC design certification - was not sufficient and called for funding to take "at least" two reactor designs through the process.

Non-light water advanced reactors could be deployed commercially by 2030 if government and industry worked together to solve challenges including financing, NEI said. It called for two or more advanced non-light water reactors to be demonstrated by 2025, with at least two designs commercially available for construction in the US by 2030. "Given the funding needs, in parallel with reforms to the NRC licensing process to accommodate advanced, non-light-water technologies, industry and government must start immediately to create a new, durable platform to finance advanced technology development," it said.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News