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Capacity planning targets keep going up
By Wayne Laib
Happy Thanksgiving! The topic for the American Nuclear Society's Special Award in 2011 is "Innovations in Small Modular Reactors."
Infocast held a gabfest for small nuclear proponents last week, promising an opportunity for small modular reactor (SMR) vendors and suppliers to understand how the future of their industry would be shaped by banks and venture capital firms. It's high time that the SMR bandwagon includes the financiers who'll really drive the business.
Over the next 25 years, the demand for electricity in the United States is expected to rise by 30 percent. This is a trend that will almost certainly accelerate as we move increasingly toward an electricity-based transportation infrastructure and plug-in hybrids and we replace fossil fuels. In fact, as the lead Republican sponsor of the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, I'm pushing for exactly that. This bipartisan bill will invest in the development, installation, and deployment of advanced electric vehicle infrastructure, and help put more electric vehicles on the roads.
A six-pack of small reactors can be developed over time to meet a utility's growing needs.