The Future of Nuclear Energy with Everett Redmond

 
 

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“You’re seeing a lot of support for nuclear now… I think the momentum behind nuclear is growing more and more with climate change… we’re in a very good path moving forward to build out a lot more nuclear to provide that zero carbon-emitting energy 24/7, 365.”
— Everett Redmond

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Everett Redmond is a nuclear engineer working as the Senior Director of Fuel Affairs at Oklo. We discuss the enormous challenges and opportunities in renewing the US’s nuclear fleet over the next decade, Oklo’s development of fast nuclear reactors, and how such small modular nuclear reactors will soon become commonplace.

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Biden’s White House has embarked on an ambitious climate change policy: it plans to eliminate fossil fuels for energy production in the U.S. by 2035. But, as anyone who has knowledge of the energy grid knows, this can not be replaced by traditional renewable energy sources: wind and solar both have intermittency and geographic constraints, hydro is even more geographically limited, and biomass has a range of issues such as the scale of land required and emissions.

Whatever technology is used to produce sustainable energy in the future, it needs to provide a minimum level of base power that can enable human life to flourish in any and every location. Nuclear, despite the widespread fears, presents that opportunity: it is an extremely dense, reliable and effective power source. And yet, political pressure has resulted in the industry flatlining over the past few decades.

Nuclear provides 20% of the US’s energy needs. It has been like this for the past 20 years, over which time only 1 new reactor has been built. This lack of investment means the US nuclear fleet has an average age of over 41 years, the third oldest in the world. Experts realise nuclear needs to be central to Biden’s climate change ambitions. And yet, the renewal of the existing fleet represents a challenge in itself, before thinking about increasing capacity.

But there is a path forward: a new generation of fast nuclear reactors provides an opportunity to have modular designs, streamlining the build and planning process, and reducing costs and development timescales. Such reactors are designed to be inherently safe and can support a range of energy needs beyond just electricity production. Further, such reactors can use spent fuel and significantly limit the amount of waste produced. We are on the cusp of a nuclear future.

TIMESTAMPS

00:01:58: Introductions
00:06:44: Misguided FUD against nuclear energy
00:12:16: Current status of the US fleet of nuclear plants
00:20:28: Momentum of support growing for nuclear in the US
00:26:57: Regulation of nuclear, and timescales for new plants
00:34:10: Nuclear for process heat, and supplies of water for cooling
00:37:14: Fast small modular reactors
00:46:50: UK National Grid supply breakdown
00:51:56: How a reactor works
00:58:57: Treatment of the nuclear waste
01:04:37: Fusion vs fission
01:08:55: New innovations in nuclear energy
01:12:15: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

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Mentioned in the interview:

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