A Roadmap for U.S. Nuclear Energy Innovation

摘要

The future role of nuclear energy is attracting new attention. Several recent climate policy assessments have concluded that meeting the world's growing appetite for energy while achieving deep reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions will be impossible without rapid nuclear energy growth, along with massive increases in the deployment of solar, wind, and other low-carbon energy technologies. But if nuclear energy is indeed to play such a role, the United States seems unlikely to be much of a factor at this point. Once the undisputed global leader, the U.S. nuclear energy industry is now well on its way to second-tier status. The new leaders include China and, notably, Russia, whose aggressive nuclear exporters are one of the few bright spots in that nation's troubled economy. Meanwhile, the U.S. fleet of 100 nuclear power reactors, still the world's largest and the source of almost two-thirds of the nation's low-carbon electricity, is slowly shrinking. Five operating reactors have recently closed, and several more will be retired in the next few years. As the rest of the nuclear fleet ages, many more reactors seem likely to be shuttered over the next couple of decades.