Live long and prosper

In the post-COVID era, legislation, partnerships, and programming have brought us to this moment. Pulling from Nuclear Newswire, the stories from the last few weeks (as of this writing) are speaking to the forward momentum here in the United States:

• We welcomed the first update to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear report.
• U.S. nuclear capacity has the potential to triple from ~100 GW in 2024 to ~300 GW by 2050.
• AI and data center load growth is aligning the fundamentals for new nuclear with requirements for 24/7 power, valuing decarbonization and investment in new generation assets.
• In 2022, utilities were shutting down nuclear reactors; in 2024, they are extending reactor operations to 80 years, planning to uprate capacity, and restarting formerly closed reactors.
• Constellation Energy announced a 20-year power purchase agreement to provide electricity to Microsoft data centers in the mid-Atlantic region from the Crane Clean Energy Center (formerly TMI-1) in Pennsylvania.
• Major financial institutions now recognize the key role that nuclear energy must play in the global net zero energy transition and that improving access to financing can help unlock nuclear energy’s potential.
• TerraPower Isotopes announced commercial-scale production of actinium-225, making the medical isotope available to the pharmaceutical industry through weekly production runs.
• Kairos Power broke ground on its Salt Production Facility at the Manufacturing Development Campus in Mesa del Sol, N.M. The new facility will produce the FLiBe needed to cool the advanced reactors Kairos plans to build, starting with its Hermes nonpower demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
• Bisconti Research’s 2024 nuclear energy public opinion survey shows that public support for nuclear energy continues to reach record highs, with—for the fourth year in a row—more than 75 percent of respondents indicating that they favor the use of nuclear power.
• With a $1.52 billion loan from the DOE and $1.3 billion in grants to rural electric cooperatives near the plant, the ambitious plans to restart Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant next fall are moving ahead.

I am being illustrative with these hot-off-the-press examples of what we in the nuclear enterprise are witnessing as we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. The time for nuclear has always been now, and ANS will continue to collaborate with its members and growing team of partners to celebrate future years of innovation and advancement.