OPINION | DAVID HESS
A nuclear year’s resolution – part 1
Dear nuclear industry – Don’t sit around complaining about a lack of public or political support for nuclear energy. This year, make a resolution to radically upgrade yourselves and your companies. You are needed.
David Hess, Senior VP DeepGeo
T’S EARLY IN 2025 AND the nuclear industry stands poised for great things. Public acceptance levels for nuclear energy are the highest they have been in decades – if not ever. Global climate and energy security drivers are pushing governments strongly in the direction of starting or expanding nuclear energy programmes. Adding further momentum,
leading financial institutions and other major industrial sectors such as Big Tech have finally received the message and made their support for nuclear energy public. In the media we see announcement after announcement
from advanced nuclear technology companies raving about their progress. Even where new technology isn’t necessarily making the nuclear sector better, it is leading to massive new demand for reliable electricity and supporting the business case for new nuclear plants. Things generally seem rosy in the nuclear industry at the moment, but if you put your reading glasses on and take a closer look you will discover an industry beset by problems.
In too many places nuclear projects are costing enormously more than estimated and taking far too long to complete. Even while nominally supportive of nuclear energy, key financial organisations are still not backing projects in a way that exposes themselves to any genuine risk. Nuclear phase outs are still on the cards in several countries, and even though substantially weakened, anti- nuclearism is still influential in certain key fora. The number of companies ready to supply and construct
nuclear developments internationally is painfully low and the pool of properly trained human resources available to do key jobs is shallow. This goes triple for newcomer countries. Despite the hype, many nuclear innovators are stuck and struggling to get pilot projects underway. Some are facing financial headwinds and even bankruptcy. The market for uranium and front-end fuel services
©Alexy Kovynev
remains in a state of upheaval as a result of a lack of investment, exacerbated by recent political interventions. Many fuel analysts are now wary of future potential shortfalls. On the back end of the fuel cycle things remain as constipated as ever, with only a handful of countries making meaningful progress towards final disposal. Even constructing new interim storage sites seems too hard for many. This sorry list goes on and on. The nuclear industry finds itself to be the hero of the hour but is apparently completely unfit for the task at hand. No one in the nuclear industry can seriously expect it to grow to provide three times more electricity globally by 2050 without profound changes taking place. At the moment, then, the industry and its supporting bodies are woefully out of shape. If this were a movie then about now you might hope for some kind of training montage to play out set to rousing music. The industry needs a sector-wide transformational plan to introduce new good habits and get rid of bad ones. As anyone that has ever attempted a personal transition
“It seems to me that these proposals to simplify this project are actually making it far more complicated”
16 | February 2025 |
www.neimagazine.com
from couch potato to athlete knows, half measures are simply not going to cut it. You cannot make minor alterations to existing frameworks and orthodoxies and expect to see Olympic results. Progress takes constant effort and a re-evaluation of previous choices. Equally though, one cannot expect to go from ‘zero to hero’ overnight. That
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61
