POLICY & REGULATION | ADVANCED REACTOR STRATEGY
An advanced reactor strategic plan
The US Department of Energy (DOE) can be more effective in helping to commercialise advanced nuclear energy technologies and catalyse the private-public partnership that is needed. A report from the Nuclear Innovation Alliance explains how
THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) should develop an Advanced Nuclear Energy Strategic Plan for commercialising advanced nuclear energy. This is the conclusion of a report from the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA) that explores how the DOE could be transformed in order to meet the nation’s energy security and clean energy goals. According to the report, Transforming the US Department
of Energy: Paving the Way to Commercialize Advanced Nuclear Energy, developing an overarching Advanced Nuclear Energy Strategic Plan for commercialising advanced nuclear energy is critical as it would also create an integrated organising strategy for the various nuclear energy programmes, projects and technologies. This includes the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) demonstration projects, risk reduction awards, and advanced reactor concepts 2020; fuels initiatives; and others.
A successful Strategic Plan would be spearheaded by the
Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) and would account for the interrelationship with all the nuclear-related programmes at DOE – the Loan Programs Office (LPO), the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the Office of Science, the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), and the National Laboratories, along with initiatives that cut across multiple DOE offices. The report notes that such a plan is certain to require adjustments over time, because of technology breakthroughs, technology stumbling blocks, and world events, but the need to adapt or a lack of unanimity should not be a bar to having such a plan, the report also notes that while an Advanced Nuclear Energy Strategic Plan would be useful in any event, it would be most useful in combination with a long-term budget plan although budget plans historically have not always made their to Congress. Another challenge is that the nuclear energy programmes currently work independently of each other and are budgeted as such. It would be difficult for them to agree on a common long-term budget. Nonetheless, by creating a budget plan, DOE could address the resources needed to achieve its goals and identify what the relevant DOE offices and National Laboratories could contribute to the effort. It could lay out a plan to hire additional staff, support more technologies and awards for advanced reactors (largely under the ARDP), fuels, and the nuclear supply chain through the journey to commercialization. The budget plan would have to be embedded in a broader budget plan for how DOE allocates resources to ensure that a suite of solutions is available to meet climate and energy objectives.
Above: Labs like Idaho National Laboratory have a key role to play in developing commercial advanced reactors
34 | July 2023 |
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Developing a strategic plan Alongside calling for the development of a budgeted Advanced Nuclear Energy Strategic Plan, the report also makes recommendations on how the DOE should actually develop the plan. Its primary recommendation is to create an Advanced Nuclear Energy Earthshot similar to the US lunar programme of the 1960s. However, NIA emphasises that the goal would not simply be the development of nuclear technology, but its successful commercial deployment. Using all the elements of DOE will support commercial developers by better integrating all DOE’s existing efforts to provide advanced reactor developers with greater access to materials, tools, components and analytical capabilities that are not commercially available, or are sourced from an atrophied supply chain. An Advanced Nuclear Energy
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