![]() ![]() But since it may be necessary to avoid climate change, we shouldn't give up.But the vast majority of new nuclear power construction over the next five years will take place in the Asia Pacific region. "Nuclear power can be done in a way that none of those failures of the past would recur, because just the physics of how it's built," Gates told Anderson Cooper on CBS' "60 Minutes." "I admit, convincing people of that will be almost as hard as actually building it. ![]() Going forward, even with new technology and demand for clean energy, nuclear energy still has an uphill public relations battle, though, Gates says. Until they come to fruition, existing solutions "may not have horns, but you can actually put a saddle on one and cut carbon emissions." "They have amazing powers to solve all kinds of environmental problems, they just don't exist in the real world." Regardless, many of the new nuclear technologies like advanced power plants are currently "energy unicorns," says Gregory Jaczko, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman and the founder of Wind Future LLC. The two new nuclear reactors being built in Georgia, for instance, "will produce more carbon-free electricity than is currently generated by the more than 7,000 wind turbines in the state of California" he says, and "will, over a 60-year lifetime, avoid the release of about 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide." Kotek points to the opportunity cost of solely focusing on things like wind and solar. "And I'm still in, like, five different battery companies." "I've lost more money on battery companies than anyone," Gates, who also invests in battery storage companies, told Fortune recently. (Wind and solar energy need to be stored so there is still power when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not out.) "By far, the best solution is to deploy existing clean, renewable energy and storage technologies," Jacobson says.īut according to Gates, fully renewable energy systems faces an as yet unsurmounted challenge: It has so far been impossible to create a battery that can be scaled to store enough energy to power entire electrical grids. Jacobson also points out that while the operation of nuclear power plants does not emit greenhouse gasses (the federal government calls nuclear energy " a zero-emission clean energy source), there are emissions generated in the production of nuclear power plants and in the decomissioning of reactors. There is some risk of weapons proliferation, mining uranium can be dangerous, and there is no good safe long-term storage solution for nuclear waste in the United States, to name a few. The myriad of risks with nuclear power are also not insignificant, he says. "Since we need to solve 80% of the climate and pollution problems by 2030, and 100%, ideally, by 2035, a new nuclear reactor that takes an average of 15 years between planning and operation is completely useless in terms of helping the climate problem," Jacobson says. "This proposed technology is a distraction from existing low-cost, safer, and faster solutions available today," like wind and solar power, says Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Of course, there are those who say nuclear power is not the immediate answer. The new reactors, due online in 20, will be some of " the world's most advanced," according to the Office of Nuclear Energy of the federal government's Department of Energy. electricity generation comes from nuclear power, a new nuclear power plant is being constructed by Southern Nuclear at the Vogtle plant in Waynesboro, Georgia (which is about 40 minutes south of Augusta). ![]() In the United States, where about 20% of total annual U.S. "The United Arab Emirates is looking beyond its fossil fuel history and has just started up the first of four nuclear reactors, which by the middle of this decade will supply 25% of its electricity, and Turkey and Bangladesh are constructing their first nuclear reactors," Cobb says.Īnd "other countries, such as Poland and Egypt are intending to build their first nuclear power plants in the future," he says. "The potential of nuclear energy as a part of a broad, low carbon-generation portfolio is becoming clearer to those governments that want to take action on climate change," says Jonathan Cobb, senior communication manager for World Nuclear Association, a non-profit of industry stake-holders. Around the world, the adoption of nuclear energy is starting to change. ![]()
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