Kerry JacksonAs the California Coastal Commission agreed this month to keep the state’s last nuclear energy plant open for at least five more years, the Trump administration announced federal funding for the development of small modular nuclear reactors.
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo Power Plant, the only remaining nuclear energy facility in a state, was saved this month from an imminent death when the Coastal Commission voted to issue the permit the plant needs to obtain a federal license to operate for another 20 years. The twin-reactor site has been providing safe, clean and reliable electrical power for four decades.
Nationally, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Holtec Government Services in Michigan were chosen to develop light-water small modular reactor projects. Each will receive up to $400 million in federal cost-shared funding.
Champions of limited government will dispute the federal government’s involvement rather than allowing the market to make that choice.
They should. It’s a legitimate gripe.
But $800 million is a small amount of the private capital to be invested in nuclear power once public policy clears the way for the marketplace. Government has picked nuclear energy to be a loser for decades, suppressing its growth with regulatory and licensing hurdles, and even state-level bans on new plant construction (including California’s almost half-century-old in-effect moratorium). The number of domestic nuclear reactors peaked at 112 but now there are only about 90, says the Energy Information Administration, and 23 are decommissioning as of August.
Maybe it’s time to make up for the penalties imposed without justification on nuclear power?
California has been at the forefront of banning nuclear power, but some lawmakers have been considering rolling back the ban so the state can meet its clean energy goals. A bill was ntroduced earlier this year to exempt small modular reactors – the same technology that administration is betting on – from the nuclear ban.
Nuclear-friendly bills proposed in 2022 and 2024 also intended to accelerate development of small modular reactors. That none of the three has become law is discouraging, since the state needs to avail itself of nuclear options if it’s to meet its green energy targets and avoid weekly rolling blackouts, Leonard Rodberg recently wrote in CalMatters.
“A system powered solely by solar, wind, and hydro isn’t an engineering strategy; it’s a belief system. Zealotry and energy reliability don’t mix,” says Rodberg, a Queens College urban studies professor emeritus.
Even in 2050, five years after California is to have achieved “carbon neutrality” in power generation, Rodberg says there will still be “extended periods throughout the year when the renewables” will fail to meet the load demand. “In fact, there are 52 days during the year when significant amounts of gas have to be burned to avoid system failure.”
If natural gas is banned, then nuclear will have to make up the shortage It can take 10 to 12 years to add new nuclear capacity, from the planning and licensing phase to completion of construction. We should add a few years this being California, where all construction projects become slogs. It is unachievable to build a 90% clean power grid by 2035 replacing fossil fuel generation with nuclear.
Unless policymakers commit to small modular reactors, or SMRs. They are cheaper and manufactured faster, can be built in factories, shipped by containers and quickly installed on site. They have the potential to change the game.
Yes, SMRs are still in their infancy, but the private sector’s growing interest inspires confidence. They seem like exactly the sort of innovation that a once-forward-looking state such as California would be enthusiastically pursuing.
Kerry Jackson is the William Clement Fellow in California Reform at the Pacific Research institute and co-author of the PRI book, “The California Left Coast Survivor’s Guide.”
Californians buy and use a very large number of rechargeable auto on/off solar pathway lights, the kind you get just about anywhere. Just you basic solar LED path lights. The point is this, there is no reason for Californians to be so ill informed about renewables’ shortcomings because everything you need to know about renewable energy supplies is discoverable in those cheap path lights. During the summer, when the sun shines a long time, they stay lit from sunset until about 5 a.m. During the winter, with sunlight diminished by short days and that glorious orb in the southern hemisphere, those path lights stay lit only until about 1 am. On very dark, rainy winter days, a couple of hours less. The same lessons apply when the wind doesn’t blow. How happy and prosperous we will be when common sense returns and once against informs our energy strategies.
The key to rolling out nuclear power is to standardize on a few models. Say, small, medium and large. Mass produce the parts and have a one time design review for each model. Also, training would then be standardized. Train once, work anywhere. Larger pool of operators. All of this cuts costs and roll out time. Unless this happens, the slow, costly crawling pace of nuclear power deployment will return. And fail, once more.