![]() government made it a national-security priority, much of the regulatory process could potentially be accelerated. On the current crisis footing, governments might throw more support behind the sector as a potential solution. There have been lofty expectations of advanced nuclear for years but the nascent industry still has little tangible to show for them. Related Book: Against the Tide: Rickover’s Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy by Rear Adm. The company says its technology is different from conventional reactors and so was its application it expects to submit a revised version by year’s end. Oklo submitted an application in 2020, which the agency kicked back in January, saying it was missing some key details. “It takes time, but it’s not years.”ĭeWitte says the design is ready to go, but he can’t proceed without a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “All this stuff, we could do it in months,” said DeWitte. After that, additional systems could start rolling out of factories every three to six months, according to DeWitte, and could be assembled fast on-site, thanks to Oklo’s modular design. The first one would fit in a small warehouse and cost about $50 million. Whereas conventional nuclear reactors have about 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of capacity, Silicon Valley-based Oklo has designed a 15-megawatt system that could provide clean power to about 10,000 homes. A domestic supply would take years to jump-start.Īlso Read: Russia’s New Floating Nuclear Power Plant Sets Sail for the Arctic However, the type of fuel its reactor would run on is scarce-and mostly sourced from Russia right now. was willing to fast-track the regulatory process, said Oklo’s Chief Executive Officer Jacob DeWitte. It wouldn’t be big, but it could be ready quickly if the U.S. says it could build a new plant in about one year. Still in development, these offer the promise of carbon-free energy and could back up the ebbs and flows of renewable power in clean grids of the future.Īs Russia’s war in Ukraine galvanizes Western countries to break their reliance on Russian energy exports, in part by accelerating green technologies that will replace fossil fuels, one solution could be boosting the deployment of nuclear energy. That’s one reason the industry is staking its future on a new generation of smaller advanced reactors. This series looks at speeding up zero-carbon alternatives by lowering political and financial barriers.īuilding big, conventional nuclear power plants is slow and expensive. and Europe on a wartime mission to abandon Russian fossil fuels. Russia is also still building commercial nuclear icebreakers.īy Will Wade (Bloomberg) The invasion of Ukraine has put the U.S. Among the tiny number of small modular reactors in operation in the world right now are two on a ship floating off Russia’s far eastern coast.
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