Decarbonization Day

A personal reflection from a N4C volunteer:

"I got into nuclear to decarbonize. A college paper on the environmental impacts of electricity sources made me aware of the massive damage caused by fossil fuel pollution. From particulate matter to nitrous oxides and now climate pollutants I could not believe that fossil fuels had been allowed to pollute so much for so long. So I took classes on efficiency, got jobs in labs doing battery and fuel cell research and took classes on nuclear and energy systems broadly.

To me, nuclear had the biggest potential impact for decarbonization. Hydro I understood to have limited growth potential, and nuclear was the 2nd largest source of low-carbon electricity. Historically the quickest decarbonizations were driven by large hydro or nuclear build-outs such as Sweden, Ontario and France. The land use and raw materials were the smallest of any low-carbon energy sources. At the time, I was excited about batteries, solar and wind, but I did not think they could grow fast enough to meet our needs.

As my career progressed in nuclear, I’ve been excited to see renewables grow as fast as they did. But that renewables growth seemed to always coincide with natural gas peaking plants to balance out the grid. I knew in the long term, natural gas was still too dirty, and I continue to believe that nuclear will be the clean dispatchable solution. Solar and Wind need to continue growing as fast as possible, but so too must transmission, batteries and nuclear to maintain grid reliability.

The reliable grid must be the backbone of the clean energy economy. We must decarbonize not only electricity but transportation which will require a huge build-out in electric cars (more grid demand) and home heating which will require a move to heat pumps and induction stoves (more grid demand). A grid 2 to 3 times larger will be required, and that grid must be low carbon which either requires natural gas to capture its carbon or nuclear to provide clean dispatch power.

The need for nuclear power also goes into industrial emissions where electrification may not be possible. Many industrial processes require high-temperature steam which advanced reactors such as high-temperature gas reactors are designed to supply.?

From clean firm power today to dispatchable power and process heat for industrial solutions, nuclear can fill the jobs that intermittent renewable electricity can’t. This makes nuclear an essential tool for decarbonization."