Perspectives on the NICE Future Initiative

As we prepare for the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF) this September in Pittsburgh, a U.S. city brightly leading the way toward cleaner energy, it’s time to look freshly at an important CEM initiative. This GCEAF features the accomplishments of the CEM Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE Future) initiative, including a new and ambitious NICE Future program of work. As we face the global twin crises of climate change and energy security, it’s more important than ever to create a better understanding of the vision and near-term actions for nuclear energy to bring holistic and real solutions.?

As the sole nuclear?energy-focused?initiative of the CEM, the NICE Future initiative envisions a world in which nuclear innovations work together with other non-emitting generation technologies to accelerate progress toward clean energy and climate goals. Nuclear energy already accounts for about a third of the world’s zero-emission electricity production, and advanced technologies and approaches that will be deployed this decade make it an attractive option for many countries. In addition, nuclear energy has multiple applications beyond electricity, including the production of clean drinking water, heat, hydrogen, life-saving medical isotopes, and more.

Since ministers from the United States, Canada, and Japan launched the NICE Future initiative at CEM9 (May 2018, Copenhagen, Demark), the initiative has grown to include 13 countries and 19 partner organizations. For four years, NICE Future has provided a forum for CEM ministers and global policy leaders?to?explore how nuclear innovations can be accelerated for rapid deployment in clean energy systems design, with four focus areas:?(1) innovation, both electric and non-electric, including to enable integrated energy systems (such as flexible, nuclear-renewables systems); (2) engagement of stakeholders on energy options; (3) valuation and financing; and (4) communicating?nuclear energy’s roles within clean energy systems, advancing social equity and economic empowerment, and building the nuclear energy workforce of the future.?

The GCEAF will mark the successful completion of the three-year NICE Future initiative’s Flexible Nuclear Campaign?for Nuclear-Renewables?Integration?(FNC).?FNC made phenomenal strides, contributing ground-breaking analysis by the world’s leading experts in integrated systems. It highlighted solutions for how nuclear energy can provide clean, integrated, flexible, and secure power in tandem with renewable energy. In fact, nuclear energy is a strong enabler of renewable energy. FNC work also informed global research and development programs and technology investment decisions.

Leveraging the technical foundations that FNC established, the logical next step is to transition to explore how these advances and innovations can concretely transform quality of life for people and communities. That is why the United States, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom are pleased to jointly present to CEM ministers a new Campaign to Research the Impacts on Social Equity and Economic Empowerment (RISE3). RISE3 will provide expert resources and create a blueprint for countries transitioning to a clean and just energy economy with nuclear innovation as a key pillar. It will recommend areas where nuclear technologies can advance environmental justice and equity. The campaign will support and track community transformations, with a focus on how unabated coal site conversion options with nuclear and/or renewables yield economic and jobs impacts, and will also feature advances that can benefit communities, such as expanded nuclear-renewables integration, flexible electricity grids, hydrogen production, thermal and electrical energy, advanced nuclear technologies such as small modular and microreactors, process heat utilization, desalination, and more.

RISE3 engages the expertise of two U.S. Department of Energy laboratories: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL). RISE3 also features research by environmental nonprofits. RISE3 seeks to collaborate with the CEM Empowering People Initiative and other CEM people-centered initiatives, as well as multigovernmental organizations such as the International Framework for Nuclear Energy and Cooperation, the International Energy Agency, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Generation IV International Forum.

Highlights of RISE3’s initial work will be shared at the GCEAF, including a discussion of ministers and leaders at a session titled “Ministerial Perspectives: Global Imperatives, Local Solutions – Actions to Accelerate Innovative Nuclear Deployment.” The session will define actions and strategies to lift up communities around the world with near-term, cutting-edge nuclear innovation. The new NICE Future RISE3D case series, developed with NICE Future participants, will also be launched at the GCEAF, showcasing the actions of transitioning communities around the world. This session will also launch a U.S.-NICE Future study by INL and NREL on Kenya that can serve as an example for African countries and other parts of the world on options analysis for energy transitions with nuclear and renewables. Ongoing work with Kenya will be described in greater detail at the GCEAF session titled: “Job Creation through Low-Carbon Systems: Global Takeaways from Kenya Study.”

Together, we can make CEM’s NICE Future initiative even more impactful in bringing solutions in the years ahead.

Perspectives on the NICE Future Initiative by Aleshia Duncan, Deputy Assistant Secretary, International Nuclear Energy Policy and Cooperation, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; NICE Future Initiative Lead Countries Team Member; and Chair, International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation

Learn more about the NICE Future initiative at www.cleanenergyministerial.org/initiatives-campaigns/nuclear-innovation-clean-energy-future