Second nuclear age

There’s a new/old face at the power party. In the wake of $110 a barrel oil, the hue and cry over man-made carbon emissions, and the phenomenal growth of sexy renewable projects like wind farms and thermal solar power plants, it’s been easy to forget about the 104 active nuclear power plants in operation in the U.S. Sure, atomic energy has been a wallflower after a notorious spell in the 1970s, but its second stint in the spotlight is fast approaching.

For the first time in nearly a generation, new nuclear power stations in the U.S. are being planned, ushering in a potential building boom using newly-developed light-water reactor technologies.

And America is not alone, not by a long shot. Other countries with swelling populations must meet growing electricity demand, and in the face of carbon emissions fears, nuclear power seems like a logical choice. The U.S. Dept. of Energy is actually developing small light-water nuclear reactors for developing countries in an effort to control eventual proliferation. Even countries which just 20 years ago would have raised our hackles at the suggestion of using fissile fuels—such as Libya—are actively planning nuclear plants.

How do we handle such growth? We need to maintain strong levels of research funding that have yielded such discoveries as a way to remove hazardous strontium from liquid nuclear waste, and a remote antineutrino neutrino detector that can independently monitor fuel usage in a reactor. Such innovations can help build an infrastructure that can handle hundreds of new reactors. It’s an eventuality we’ll have to face.

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