With the growing voice of clean energy, nuclear energy has once again become a focus of attention. Under such circumstances, nuclear energy start-ups have sprung up. They have solved various well-known nuclear energy problems such as radioactive waste, meltdown, nuclear proliferation, and high operating costs through a variety of innovative designs. As early as 2009, Simon Irish, an investment manager in New York, discovered opportunities that he thought could change the world. Of course, in the process, he could also convert dollars into wealth.
Ireland believes that countries around the world need to build an alarming number of clean energy projects to replace fossil fuel energy infrastructure. Only in this way can sufficient energy be provided for the growing demand of those rapidly developing countries. He realized that it is too difficult to achieve this goal with renewable energy that relies on wind and solar power. And he also knows that nuclear power, as the only existing form of clean energy that can fill the gap, is too expensive to compete with oil and natural gas.
However, at a meeting in 2011, he met an engineer who designed a nuclear reactor cooled with molten salt. Ireland believes that if this plan is successful, it will not only solve the problem of aging nuclear energy, but also provide a realistic way for the world to abandon fossil fuels.
The key question is, "Can we do better than the traditional reactor that was commercialized 60 years ago?" Ireland recalled, "The answer is, 'Absolutely.'"
Ireland is very convinced that this new reactor is a great investment and he bet his entire career on it. Nearly a decade later, Ireland became the CEO of New York City-based Terrestrial Energy, which is expected to build a molten salt reactor by 2030.
Of course, in this industry, Terrestrial Energy is far from alone. In order to solve the well-known nuclear energy problems-radioactive waste, meltdown, nuclear proliferation and high operating costs, dozens of nuclear startups have emerged across the United States.
There are many whims in this industry. Some reactors can use nuclear waste. Some reactors are designed to destroy isotopes that can be made into weapons. Some small reactors can be built at low cost in factories. So many ideas!
For Ernest Moniz, an adviser to Terrestrial Energy and a former energy minister, this feels like something new is happening. "I have never seen this kind of innovation in this industry," he said. "It's really exciting."
Other reactors, such as Terrestrial Energy's molten salt cooling reactor design, are also innovative. If the reactor overheats, it will automatically cool down. The traditional reactor mainly uses water flowing through to prevent overheating, but if something stops the flow of water-like the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima-the water will boil and there is nothing to prevent the reactor from melting. .
Ireland said that unlike water, molten salt does not boil, so even if the operator turns off the safety system and walks away, the salt will keep the system cool. The salt heats up and expands, pushing the uranium atoms apart and slowing down the reaction (the farther the uranium atoms are, the less likely it is that neutrons in flight will separate them, and the next link in the chain reaction will not be triggered).
Ireland said: "It's like you put the pot on the stove when cooking pasta." No matter how hot your stove is, unless the water is boiling, your pasta will never exceed 100 degrees Celsius. However, when you use liquid salt instead of water, you must reach 1371 degrees Celsius to evaporate the coolant.
These things sound like science fiction-but it is real. Since 2016, Russia has been using an advanced reactor to generate electricity, which can burn radioactive waste. China has also built a "pebble bed" reactor that can lock radioactive elements in graphite balls the size of a club.
In 2015, the middle way think tank "Third Way" (Third Way) began to map all the advanced nuclear projects in the United States, tracking those committed to providing safer, cheaper and cleaner nuclear energy for low-carbon energy. . There are 48 dots on the first map, and now there are 75 dots that spread like candy-colored spots on the map.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, head of clean energy work at “Third Way†(Third Way), pointed out that the current development of nuclear energy is unparalleled in terms of the number of projects, the number of workers and the amount of private financing, unless you return 1960s.
At that time, Walt Disney released the film "Our Friend the Atom" to promote nuclear energy. The industry said that the future of electricity will be "too cheap to measure", and the power company plans to be in the United States. Hundreds of reactors were built everywhere.
Why is this happening now? After all, since the beginning of the Cold War, scientists have been studying these alternative types of reactors, but they have never been popular. The experimental history of advanced reactors is also full of various failures. In 1954, the molten salt-cooled reactor successfully operated for the first time, but the United States chose to focus on water-cooled reactors and cut funding for other designs.
But the basic level has changed: In the past, because traditional reactors were profitable, there was no need for nuclear companies to obtain new designs through layer-by-layer approval of federal regulatory procedures, and billions of dollars were spent in the process. That is no longer a reality.
Ireland said: "Now nuclear power operators are in financial trouble for the first time in half a century."
Recently, the US bet on traditional water-cooled reactors has slowly deteriorated in a very expensive way. In 2012, South Carolina Electric & Gas was approved to build two large conventional reactors with a power generation capacity of 2200 MW, enough to power 1.8 million households, and promised to sometime in 2018 Put into use. When power users saw their bills rise by 18% to cover construction costs, the project was quickly delayed. Last year, after investing $ 9 billion in the project, the company eventually abandoned the project.
John Parsons, co-chairman of the MIT Advanced Nuclear Energy System Low-Carbon Energy Center, said that the nuclear power project recently constructed in the United States was a disaster, mainly due to the steep increase in expenditure during the construction of the site.
Similar situations are constantly being staged abroad. In Finland, the construction of a new reactor at the Olkiluoto power plant was eight years later than originally planned, exceeding the budget by $ 6.5 billion.
In response, these nuclear startups are designing their business to avoid terrible cost overruns. Many people plan to build standardized reactor components at the factory and then assemble them like building Lego bricks at a construction site. "If you can move the project to the factory, you can significantly reduce costs," Parsons said.
The new reactor can also reduce costs in a safer way. Traditional reactors have a basic risk of meltdown, largely because they were originally designed to power submarines. Ireland explained that it was easy to use water to cool reactors when it was underwater, but when we lifted these reactors to land, we had to start pumping water to cool them. "This is to ensure that the pump system will never go wrong, or that devastating accidents like Fukushima will never happen. During the construction process, you need a safety system on top of a safety system, redundancy on top of redundancy."
Oklo is a Silicon Valley startup whose reactor design is based on prototypes that are not prone to meltdown. "When the engineer shuts down all cooling systems, it will cool itself, then restart and operate normally later in the day," said Caroline Cochrane, co-founder of Oklo. If these safer reactors do not require backup cooling systems and concrete enclosures, the company can use less money to build nuclear power plants.
Prior to success, technology often experienced a long period of failure: a 45-year repair between the advent of the first electric lamp and the invention of an incandescent lamp by Thomas Edison. It may take decades for the project to catch up with the idea. Parsons said that others have tried various advanced nuclear energy ideas in the past. "But science is already moving forward," he said. "You have better materials than decades ago. This makes these things feasible."
A recent study by the nonprofit Energy Innovation Reform Project estimates that the latest batch of nuclear power startups will cost between US $ 36 and US $ 90 per megawatt. This makes it competitive with any power plant that uses natural gas (with operating prices between US $ 42 and US $ 78) and will provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
In the best case, nuclear power may even be cheaper. But similar studies like nuclear energy startups can cut construction costs through innovative design, but revolutionary progress cannot be foreseen.
"Hopefully these designers can further reduce costs-you want to enable more people to get more energy-so even without fossil fuels such as coal, nuclear energy will become a cheap alternative to defeat natural gas," Parsons said, "This is just a hope, but this is what entrepreneurs should do."
Harvard nuclear energy expert Matthew? BUNN (MATTHEW BUNN) said that if nuclear energy plays a role in combating climate change, these advanced nuclear power companies will have to quickly expand their scale. "In order to provide one-tenth of the clean energy we need by 2050, we must add 30 gigawatts of electricity to the grid every year," he said.
This means that the world will need to build nuclear power plants that are 10 times larger than before the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Is this realistic?
"I think we should try — but I'm not optimistic," Bunn said, noting that it is equally difficult for us to build solar and wind power plants to replace fossil fuels.
Huge obstacles still hinder the renaissance of nuclear energy. Before a company starts construction, it takes years to test prototypes and obtain approval from federal regulators. A study published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that "in order to enable advanced nuclear technology to play a role in the deep decarbonization process in the coming decades," The United States will need to completely reform the way nuclear technology is promoted.
Experts point out that in order to provide an advanced nuclear reactor with an opportunity for fair competition, many methods are consistent: making regulation more conducive to innovation, rather than favoring traditional reactors. Encourage public utility companies to purchase low-carbon energy. There is also more funding.
The people behind the new generation of nuclear power companies believe that with the right help, they can enter the market faster. Oklo is preparing to build a commercial reactor by 2025.
"Can we use nuclear energy to quickly get rid of fossil fuels? France did it, and it can be done," said Cochrane from Oklo. "Our reactors are 500 times smaller than the latest traditional reactors. They have all these inherent safety features and can consume nuclear waste. Will our application process be shorter?"
Jessica Lovering, who studies nuclear power at the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank, said that the government used to choose a promising idea and take care of it like a privileged child. This is what we used to treat traditional nuclear energy. the way. And lowering these barriers is much cheaper.
"We can choose an idea, spend a lot of money to help it become commercialized, and then provide more financial subsidies for each project," Lovrin said. "Or, we can let the entire innovation system invest less money. "
Dan Kammen, who studies clean energy at the University of California, Berkeley, said that despite this, advanced nuclear projects are likely to take up to 30 years to pass regulatory review to resolve various unexpected problems that have arisen during the long process. And prove that they have market competitiveness. By that time, Carmen believes that there will be other options in the competition: electricity storage is getting better, and nuclear fusion technology may be a breakthrough.
Kaman said: "Ultimately, on a planet with a population of 10 billion people, a certain amount of large, convenient, affordable, and safe base-load electricity-just like the electricity we get from nuclear fission or fusion- -It will be very beneficial. There will also be progress in solar power generation. After decades of development, perhaps as described in science fiction, each window will be covered with solar film. Such a world It can run normally. "
At this moment in history, everything is a vision and possible. We must completely replace our existing energy system in development. To this end, people planted many different seeds. There is still a long time to harvest, but we have seen sprouts in some parts of the garden.
The innovation of nuclear energy has excited young people. They see nuclear energy as a way to get rid of fossil fuels. College students are being attracted to the nuclear engineering major. When the nuclear industry was on the verge of collapsing in the 1970s, the number of students studying the problem gradually decreased, but it has been steadily climbing since the early 2000s.
Some of these students are starting their own advanced nuclear companies. The documentary producer David Schumacher met some young people and their enthusiasm infected Schumacher, so he produced a documentary about them "The New Fire" (The New Fire), the film last year Released.
"They are truly idealistic young people who try to save the planet by doing something very important but not popular," Schumacher said. "They may have made a lot of money elsewhere, although they know they will be Reproach, but they are starting these nuclear companies. "
This is a familiar feeling in Ireland, which is struggling with Terrestrial Energy. "The view on the nuclear issue is so negative," he said. "The biggest victory is to convince busy people to listen carefully."
Although Terrestrial Energy is still struggling with public opinion, Ireland said his company has been completing each phased goal on time. Canadian regulators announced last year that Terrestrial Energy has completed the initial phase of the design review – this is the first step in the country ’s approval to construct a nuclear power plant. Ireland has selected a location in Ontario where Terrestrial Energy can build the first reactor.
Although Ireland expressed silence on Terrestrial Energy ’s other work, he did describe an experience, which he said gave him more confidence in the company ’s prospects and more confidence than any other achievement so far.
Last August, he was in the office of a prominent investor in New York, who was also a major contributor to environmental organizations. Attending this meeting is a challenge because of the controversy surrounding the nuclear issue. But in the end, Ireland successfully persuaded the businessman to make him understand that renewable energy and nuclear energy not only coexist, but promote each other.
In an Irish narration, he was explaining the reactor design of Terrestrial Energy. The man stopped him at the time and said, "Wait a minute, this can bring heat!" The industrial sector needs heat, but wind and solar have not played any role at all. effect.
"As far as he is concerned," Ireland said, "this is his biggest regret."
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