What are the most pressing challenges for nuclear power generation today?

Existing nuclear power provides a large (almost 20%) base source of electricity to the US power grid. This is a very reliable and stable source of energy. Other sources of power such as gas plants are needed to pair with renewable energy as they can shift to changing loads are the sunshine or wind changes. Nuclear power is best base-loaded and left there. For new plants nuclear energy would need to change to be more competitive with renewables in cost and speed to market. It would be geat if there could be some innovation that allowed more base-load nuclear power generation that provides a consistent portion of power to the grid. The higher this generation, the less need for gas-fired plants to fill the gap for renewable generation.

Technology and safety has improved immensely over the last 5 decades and a lot of nuclear plants have been successfully constructed and continue to operate. A nuclear plant in a less populated area is always welcome to avert any possibility of repeat disasters. The Radiological council of Western Australia and similar licencing bodies have several licenced individuals who have some form of competency in radiation application which is a good indicator that knowledge and knowhow of rad safety is fairly well distributed in the Australias' and the world in general.

Many nuclear power plants around the world are reaching the end of their operational lifespans. Decommissioning these plants and managing the associated radioactive waste present technical, financial, and regulatory challenges.

Todo gobierno que desee desarrollar un programa nuclear con fines pacíficos con la mayor seguridad operacional debe establecer una Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear independiente con la autoridad necesaria para hacer cumplir todas las regulaciones que se adopten por el gobierno relacionadas con el uso seguro de la energía nuclear. Además, la Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear establecerá normas y guías regulatorias que conforman el marco regulatorio de la actividad nuclear en el país. Las normas regulatorias son de cumplimiento obligatorio para todas las actividades reguladas por la Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear, y establecerá los requisitos para las instalaciones y prácticas, y para el personal que se desempe?a en ellas.

Safety level in nuclear industry is very high, but it is inadequately explained to public. The regulations enforcing the safety levels should be strictly related to the "acceptable risk for the society" and not related solely to "public perception" and subjected to political influences (e.g., straightening the regulations to satisfy the public concerns). It is the "acceptable risk for the society" which should be steady and clearly defined and the Regulators should "negotiate" it with the society and NOT the nuclear industry that should comply with it. An example of a well done regulatory framework is in Finland. The regulations should define the "limits", not the way in which these limits are meet.

This is a topic very related to the public perception of the "radiation risk". If an objective perception of the effect of radiation on humans is promoted and explained to the public, together with the protective measures related to this risk, the acceptability of the waste management in the nuclear industry would be clearly accepted and not representing anymore a challenge. Issues such as the impact of radiation on humans (e.g., the LNT model, etc.) should be better explained to the public, etc.

Discussions on nuclear energy waste often center around safe geological storage, containment and in some cases even launching it off to outer space! Here is a different approach. Nuclear energy waste from conventional PHWRs still retains over 90% of its potential energy. This amount of energy takes millennia to dissipate out. High energies are what makes it dangerous. We have solutions now to attack the root cause, that extracts almost all the energy from the stockpiles of spent fuel waste. India's 3 stage nuclear program is one example. Step 1: PHWR using U-238 -> waste with Pu-239 Step 2: FBR to use P-239 + U-238 -> Even more P-239 Step 3: Thorium reactors using abundant Th-232 + P-239 -> waste less dangerous than even Uranium ore!

La gestión de los desechos nucleares es un proceso que se realiza en tres etapas: 1. Almacenamiento inicial: una vez que el combustible se ha gastado en una central nuclear, se extrae del reactor para almacenarse temporalmente en una piscina de agua. Esta piscina está dentro de la central para reducir la carga calorífica y crear una primera barrera a las radiaciones. 2. Almacenamiento intermedio. 3. Almacenamiento definitivo. Estos desechos deben gestionarse de manera que las personas y el medio ambiente se mantengan protegidos durante lapsos de tiempo prolongados. Hay varios países que disponen de la tecnología para la gestión segura de los desechos nucleares entre los cuales se encuentran Finlandia y Suecia, los EEUU y Rusia.

Nuclear waste management are very crucial and up to these days, there is no environmental friendly solution on nuclear waste management.

Existen varias razones por las cuales la opinión pública puede rechazar el uso de la energía nuclear: 1. Accidentes nucleares. 2. La posible tilización de la energía nuclear con fines militares. 3. Terrorismo. 4. Almacenamiento de residuos. 5. Desinformación. 6. Costo y tiempo de implementación. Es importante destacar que la opinión pública puede variar significativamente de un país a otro. Por ejemplo, en Francia, donde la energía nuclear representa alrededor del 80% de la electricidad consumida, es generalmente aceptada por la sociedad. Sin embargo, en otros países como Estados Unidos, Francia, y Japón, que representan el 75% de la energía nuclear en el mundo, existe una persistente oposición popular.

Nuclear was always the answer. It's a good thing many understand this. We'd never have progressed the way we have without it.

As an observation, in the latest nuclear projects, the high upfront capital cost was mainly related to the "project deployment" (e.g., many design changes to be implemented during construction, many re-works, many "working pauses", etc.). The above raise the question on the efficiency of PROJECT (particularly manufacturing and construction) PLANNING and MANAGEMENT - e.g., inadequate approach to stakeholders management (rather conflictual than teaming-up), vague stakeholders participation scope definition (too general contractual definition of the scope, etc.), unilateral (by the project management organization ONLY) and too detailed (e.g., not using a "rolling wave planning", etc.) scheduling of the project, etc.

Long term sustainable growth of the industry relies on delivering plants consistently and at a price point competitive to other reliable generators such as coal plants and combined cycle gas turbines. Given nuclear fission's inherent fuel advantage over these technologies, and the low material and land demand there is no reason why this should not be possible. Therefore innovation from vendors should focus on project delivery and simplification. Innovation from governments should focus on removing unnecessary barriers to deployment.

The high cost of nuclear power is in some ways misleading. The long construction times, for example, are not inherent: South Korea has built projects routinely in fewer than five years. Japan has done it in less than four years. Over the past decade China has added 37 new nuclear reactors. The unique regulatory structure in the United States lends itself to delays, which inherently means cost overruns. All that said, keep an eye on the uranium issue. Growing demand and additional restrictions on Russian fuel — a bill is moving through Congress as we speak — will put upward pressure on prices at least in the near term while new domestic supplies are still scaling up.

Having a sustained, reliable and super-low carbon energy source is very important in the strategic sense for any nation state for long-term projects and plans. Given how the Uranium sources are traded with agreements aren't anywhere near as volatile as fossil fuels, and accumulated waste stockpiles are an abundant source of energy for centuries, it can be an important asset for economic sovereignty, shielding nation states from energy-triggered inflation. Nuclear power stations, given their strategic importance are often state-run and managed by democratic institutions, which also provides energy price stability for people and businesses, in all seasons and weather. Excess heat from the generation can be used for district heating too.

Expert workforce in nuclear power generation shortage are also contributing factor to sustainability of nuclear power generation.

Un elemento importante a tener en cuenta es que esta cooperación debe realizarse libre de condicionamientos políticos para todos los países que hayan asumido y cumplan con sus obligaciones y compromisos que se hayan asumidos en el campo de la no-proliferación.

Collaboration between companies “which lead power in the world” and satisfying the top of safety and operational excellence as practical bench mark .. The integration between different Initiatives ( zero carbon, green city, climate… etc ) mandate ..

Hay un tema que considero muy importante y que no se menciona como se debe en los comentarios que se han sugeridos y que se relaciona con la adopción de acuerdos de salvaguardias plenas con el OIEA para garantizar que los materiales nucleares e instalaciones que se construyan dentro del programa nuclear sean utilizados exclusivamente con fines pacíficos

All the above categories of challenges are interconnected, for example: - safety level in nuclear industry is, maybe the highest comparing it with other industries, but due to public perception and economic factors, it is not properly considered in decisions on nuclear projects. - due to public perceptions, the safety measures are permanently increased in nuclear projects leading to high and continuously increasing up-front investment, creating difficulties for financing such projects, - waste management in nuclear industry is a well defined and very safe part of the fuel cycle, but due to a wrong public perception (e.g., the waste quantity, etc.), has an exaggerated weight in nuclear project decisions - and so on .....

The number 1 impedement to clean nuclear energy are Politicians who believe intermittent inverter based weather dependent non-dispatchable resources can replace it.

Otro elemento que debe tenerse en cuenta y que promocionará el uso de la energía nuclear para la generación eléctrica en los próximos a?os es la aparición en el mercado de nuevos dise?os de reactores nucleares mucho más seguros y menos costosos como los del tipo SMRs. Hay una variedad bastante amplia de este tipo de reactores bajo desarrollo en un grupo de países.

High maintainability of nuclear power generation are related to feasibility and economically factors that become show stoppers for nuclear power generation sustainability.