In this week’s issue, we discuss opportunities for the U.S. to build an effective and necessary response to China's Belt and Road Initiative by repositioning itself as a clean energy technology leader. We also highlight new data from the Energy Information Administration illustrating that more electricity was generated from nuclear than coal in the U.S. last year. Finally, we note the Department of Defense’s selection of two advanced reactor companies to continue development of a final microreactor design under Project Pele.

It’s a bad sign for the free world when a headline blares, “China is convinced that America is in decline.”

A new, detailed report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) states that “[h]undreds of projects around the world now fall under the BRI umbrella” as it has expanded from a regional to a global initiative. And that “U.S. inaction as much as Chinese assertiveness is responsible for the economic and strategic predicament in which the United States finds itself.”

Large-scale nuclear power already provides 30% of the world’s low-carbon electricity and the technology will be necessary to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century. But Russia now dominates that large reactor export market.

So, one opportunity is to leverage the U.S. lead in the development of smaller, next-generation nuclear energy. It is a gap in the BRI portfolio, a rare area of bipartisan political support, and an area where the U.S. needs to maintain a technological edge for national and global security purposes. 

An interesting new article makes several important points that could help the Biden team mount a better BRI counter-offensive in the energy sector. It argues for a U.S. clean energy industrial policy that would support the domestic economic “Build Back Better” objectives of the administration as well as position the country as a clean energy technology exporter.

Industrial policy is not the pariah concept it once was now that the COVID pandemic has ravaged the American economy and highlighted the irresponsibility of overdependence on offshore supply chains. Even free market republicans have warmed to the idea as a means of more effectively competing with China.

The Biden team is in the process of preparing more ambitious climate targets for an April summit and is assembling a reported $3 trillion infrastructure package that will offer massive clean energy technology expansion. These are opportunities to pull together the investment, policy development, market cultivation, and government-wide integration that are necessary for success of U.S. next-gen nuclear.

During the U.S.-China meeting this month, the communist party’s foreign policy chief declared that, “The United States does not have the qualification…to speak to China from a position of strength.” That is a stunning slap in the face and a challenge to the globe’s leading democracy.

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Strategic Capabilities Office has selected BWXT Advanced Technologies and X-energy to continue development under Project Pele to demonstrate their microreactor prototypes. One company may be chosen after a final design review in early 2022 and the completion of environmental analysis. The initiative is meant to address increasing DOD electricity demand and produce a reactor that will generate 1 to 5 MW of power for at least three years.

World Nuclear Association and the ASEAN Centre for Energy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen regional cooperation and capabilities in the areas of nuclear energy technology and science and establish the framework for future domestic nuclear power programs.

Westinghouse has launched a bid to supply its AP1000 reactor technology for Poland’s first nuclear power plant (NPP) as part of the civil nuclear agreement (NCA) with the U.S. Poland plans to install six to nine GW of capacity from generation III or III+ pressurized water reactors (PWRs) by 2043.

Egypt’s Petrojet has signed a teaming agreement with South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), Kepco E&C, Hyundai E&C, and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction to help train local nuclear power technicians and experts and assist in the general construction of the El Dabaa NPP. Egypt has contracted Russia’s Rosatom to build four VVER-1200 PWRs at the site.

The Sizewell C consortium, a group of British businesses, has signed a MoU pledging to invest £4.4 billion in East England if the country’s planned Sizewell C NPP moves forward. Stakeholders hope that such investments would help develop regional jobs and skills.

Russia has included nuclear power in its draft green taxonomy. The document is modeled after the European Union’s Taxonomy of Sustainable Financing, but has been tailored to serve the Russian economy.

Rosatom and officials from Armenia’s Metsamor NPP will form a working group to help push for a ten-year plant life extension. The Soviet-built 420 MW station, which produces around 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity, is currently scheduled for decommissioning in 2026.

Political disputes over possible Russian involvement in the tender process to build a new unit at the Czech Republic’s Dukovany NPP is preventing it from moving forward. CEZ has noted that it would prefer a “political agreement,” but domestic security services and opposition parties have positioned themselves against the nation’s pro-Russian president, the Czech Industry Ministry, and CEZ’s Chief Executive. The tender, which is planned to take about 18 months, is estimated to be worth around $7.17 billion.

Unit 2 of Pakistan’s Karachi NPP has been connected to the national grid. The 1100 MW China-supplied PWR is scheduled to begin commercial operation by the end of May.

England’s Hinkley Point B NPP will be allowed to restart power generation. The site’s two reactors will run for twelve months (contingent upon further approval) before entering the defueling phase. The NPP was taken offline in 2020 to inspect the reactors’ graphite cores.

Japanese courts have issued mixed verdicts concerning the restart of domestic reactors. Judges lifted the injunction pertaining to Unit 3 of the Ikata NPP, which has been offline for around a year and a half. On the other hand, the Tokai Dai Ni reactor, which shut down right after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, was not permitted to restart. Nine out of 54 pre-Fukushima reactors have been approved to resume operations, and four are currently running.

Canada has awarded Moltex Energy $50.5 million to help build and fuel its innovative small modular reactor (SMR) technology. The company hopes to construct the world’s first 300 MW Stable Salt Reactor–Wasteburner (SSR-W) and Waste To Stable Salt (WATSS) facility at the Point Lepreau Generating Station in New Brunswick and connect the SSR-W to the electrical grid by the early 2030s.

The IAEA has launched a new Coordinated Research Project (CRP) to “address technical challenges in the long-term storage of spent power reactor fuel.” The four-year initiative, which will be known as “Spent Fuel Research Assessment,” or SFERA, will examine “issues related to fuel, fuel cladding and fuel assembly structures.” 

 More electricity was produced from nuclear power than coal in the U.S. last year, the latter of which was pushed out of the top two domestic electricity generation sources for the first time since at least 1949. However, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that these trends will be reversed in 2021 and 2022 as three NPPs retire, and increased natural gas prices make coal more appealing.

 

House Energy and Commerce Republicans have proposed a ‘Securing Cleaner American Energy’ agenda. The agenda includes legislation to create and operate a domestic uranium reserve, streamline plant and technology licensing, support public-private partnerships in the civil nuclear sector, facilitate the nuclear export process, and expand the use of hydrogen technology from sources like nuclear.

 

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) has introduced the ‘Combating Global Poverty Through Energy Development Act,’ which aims to remove international financial institution funding prohibitions on coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear energy projects.

A New Jersey appellate court has ruled that the state’s three NPP units can maintain their Zero Emission Certificates (ZECs) originally awarded in 2019. The ZECs provide up to $300 million annually in subsidies, money that the facility operator Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) has said is necessary to keep the units open. 

BWXT Nuclear Operations Group has received $35 million in federal contracts for uranium recovery and conversion, and the second construction phase of a new research reactor fuel line. The research reactor contract will facilitate the manufacturing of uranium-molybdenum alloy High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (U-Mo HALEU) fuel to replace high enriched uranium fuel in high-performance American research units.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is investigating FirstEnergy’s activities concerning Ohio’s House Bill 6 (HB6). Authorities allege that the Ohio House Speaker helped pass the nuclear bailout provision in HB6 as compensation for the company’s dark money donations that helped him obtain his position.

FERC has dismissed Californians for Green Nuclear Power’s (CGNP) October 2020 complaint seeking to prevent the closure of the state’s Diablo Canyon NPP. Units 1 and 2 of the NPP are set to close in November 2024 and August 2025, respectively.

Centrus Energy Corp. plans to finish construction and start operating America’s first HALEU production facility by early 2022. The facility will be located in Piketon, Ohio. HALEU is a new fuel source for next generation advanced reactors.

France intends to build Local Crisis Centers (CCLs) at domestic NPPs to help facilitate crisis management of nuclear infrastructure. The post-Fukushima initiative, which will initially target eleven NPPs, will launch with the electrification of the Tricastin site in 2022.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has released its 2021 ‘Mission and Priorities,’ which focuses on the “safe cleanup” of nuclear waste generated from energy and weapons production at facilities like the Hanford and Savannah River sites. EM will employ 3D laser scanning at the latter’s Salt Waste Processing Facility to improve safety. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm has stressed the need for collaboration and inclusivity in what must be community-conscious work.

The DOE has launched three new cybersecurity research programs to protect domestic energy infrastructure. The programs will aim to address vulnerabilities in foreign-manufactured technologies, mitigate electromagnetic and geomagnetic interference, and bolster cybersecurity research and talent development.

Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency and Health Ministry websites were hacked and edited to disseminate information about a fake nuclear waste leak from Lithuania. The head of the country’s security services listed Russia as the alleged perpetrator.

 

Iran has begun enriching uranium with IR-4 centrifuges at its Natanz plant and plans to install more machines, according to an IAEA report. Iran has also announced that it intends to cold test its redesigned Arak reactor shut down under the JCPOA before commissioning it later this year.

Japan’s nuclear regulatory body has temporarily banned the transport and loading of nuclear fuel at the country’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP after the site was found to have been vulnerable to unauthorized entry at 15 locations for a year. The site will remain offline for at least another 1.5 years as investigations and improvement plans are conducted and designed, respectively. The plant was shut down in 2012, but Units 6 and 7 passed safety inspections in 2017.

A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), ‘“Advanced” Isn’t Always Better,’ asserts that the advanced reactor designs currently under construction “do not offer obvious improvements over LWRs [light-water reactors] significant enough to justify their many risks.” UCS recommends temporary suspension of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, the establishment of a congressionally mandated independent panel to review and approve DOE R&D for new nuclear concepts, further nuclear security–related analyses of HALEU, safeguards cooperation with the IAEA, and a federal focus on R&D concerning the safety and security of LWRs.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has released a new report recommending that ‘nuclear newcomers’ develop nuclear fuel cycle and waste management strategies that take domestic needs, resources, and capabilities into account, consider future deployment of traditional and advanced reactors, and enact policies in areas like regulation, international cooperation, and public transparency.

A new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ‘Building Back Better: How Big Are Green Spending Multipliers?,’ finds that cumulative spending on nuclear energy has six times the output effect on GDP compared to spending on fossil fuel sources. The authors believe such results may be due to the longer average construction and operation time and relative higher post-investment employment.

SNC-Lavalin has published a report that examines Canada’s plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and proposes actionable steps that support nuclear energy’s role in decarbonization. The authors state that Canada should boost installed nuclear capacity from 14% to 24% of the nation’s energy mix, with the goal of commissioning one large reactor each year from 2030 to 2050. The authors also recommend bringing three 300 MW SMR units online annually from around 2035 to 2050.

The Conference Board of Canada has released a new report entitled ‘A New Power: Economic Impacts of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors in Electricity Grids,’ which focuses on deployment in the Ontario and Saskatchewan provinces. Major findings include the possible generation of $2.6 billion in GDP, $1.7 billion in wages, and $873 million in taxes upon SMR deployment in Ontario and the annual addition (on average) of 7042 jobs from the installation of a SMR fleet in Saskatchewan.

‘China's Civil Nuclear Sector: Plowshares to Swords?’

‘California’s last nuclear plant is poised to shut down. What happens next?’

‘Maria Korsnick’s Remarks at the State of the Nuclear Energy Industry Event’

‘Nuclear financing troubles track waning acceptance’

‘Taxonomies must reflect climate goals, says Orano CEO’

'Bill Gates’ bad bet on plutonium-fueled reactors'

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, March 22

‘Success of nuclear reactor Hualong One suggests it can compete with wind and solar to drive China’s decarbonization’

‘Digital Engineering to Advance Nuclear Energy Deployment’

‘Dangerous Wealth: Russians Fear Contamination From Uranium Fields’

‘Philippines needs to push nuclear power’

‘What It Will Take to Break the U.S.-Iran Impasse: A Q&A With Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’

‘An exchange of views with the European Parliament: The IAEA and the EU: Tapping Nuclear to Advance Development, Health and Environmental Sustainability’

‘Inside a nuclear power plant as France tries to improve safety’

‘Viewpoint: Nuclear can weather any storm’

‘Critical Look: PBS Newshour’s coverage of 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear accident’

‘For the NPT to work, plutonium has to go’

‘Q&A: how the UK and Japan are partnering on nuclear robotics with LongOps’

‘How China Aims To Beat The U.S., Europe At ‘Net Zero’ Carbon’

‘New Mexico demands more of US when addressing nuclear waste’

‘Taiwan’s Referendum Mayhem’

‘African countries are helping China go green. That may have a downside for Africans.’

‘No (Policy) Strings on Me: 30 Minutes with Christopher T. Hanson, Chairman, Nuclear Regulatory Commission’

‘These three baseload technologies are critical to achieving zero-carbon electric vehicles’

‘What can the nuclear sector do to increase investor confidence? Interview with Adam Rodman’

‘Are sub-Saharan countries ready for nuclear energy? Interview with Gyude Moore’

World Nuclear Association, March 11

‘Bilbao y Léon: Policy needs to match possibility to achieve SDGs

‘How Biden Can Help Europe Secure a Clean Energy Future’

‘Nuclear waste policy status and prospects in 2021’

‘Ten years after Fukushima: The experts examine lessons learned and forgotten [Commentary Series]’

‘Small Modular and Advanced Nuclear Reactors: A Reality Check’

For more than two decades, the Partnership for Global Security (PGS) has developed actionable responses to global security challenges by engaging international, private sector, and multidisciplinary expert partners to assess policy needs, identify effective strategies, and drive demonstrable results.