
Scientists assessed the options for growing nuclear power. They are grim - spenrose
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/7/11/17555644/nuclear-power-energy-climate-decarbonization-renewables
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spenrose
Abstract of the referenced (and paywalled) PNAS article:

"Nuclear power holds the potential to make a significant contribution to
decarbonizing the US energy system. Whether it could do so in its current form
is a critical question: Existing large light water reactors in the United
States are under economic pressure from low natural gas prices, and some have
already closed. Moreover, because of their great cost and complexity, it
appears most unlikely that any new large plants will be built over the next
several decades. While advanced reactor designs are sometimes held up as a
potential solution to nuclear power’s challenges, our assessment of the
advanced fission enterprise suggests that no US design will be commercialized
before midcentury. That leaves factory-manufactured, light water small modular
reactors (SMRs) as the only option that might be deployed at significant scale
in the climate-critical period of the next several decades. We have
systematically investigated how a domestic market could develop to support
that industry over the next several decades and, in the absence of a dramatic
change in the policy environment, have been unable to make a convincing case.
Achieving deep decarbonization of the energy system will require a portfolio
of every available technology and strategy we can muster. It should be a
source of profound concern for all who care about climate change that, for
entirely predictable and resolvable reasons, the United States appears set to
virtually lose nuclear power, and thus a wedge of reliable and low-carbon
energy, over the next few decades."

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nkurz
[http://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804655115](http://sci-
hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804655115)

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sand500
How much good does putting the capital for a new nuclear power plant into
gridscale energy storage do?

~~~
spenrose
Those investments are happening anyway because they make sense on their own
terms.

"batteries have a slate of use cases and multiple value propositions; with
costs declining, analysts say there is much more capacity on the way."

[https://www.utilitydive.com/news/eia-700-mw-of-utility-
scale...](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/eia-700-mw-of-utility-scale-
battery-capacity-installed-in-us/514409/)

