@Steve_Sailer
I know *a ton* of people excited about both. You forget that lots of smart women are nuclear engineers. I was hoping for a double-feature!
As Germany closed its last three nuclear reactors this weekend, Finland's brand-new 1.6GW reactor has entered full commercial operation, generating 30% of the country's electricity demand, and has reduced its dependence on imports from Sweden
A recent study shows that electricity blackouts can be avoided across the nation — perhaps even during intense weather events — by switching to 100 percent clean and renewable energy, such as solar, wind and water energy.
🧵 Okay, a deeper dive on global uranium supply:
yes, you’re right! Russia does not produce that much uranium, just 6% of global production in 2020. Top producers in order were: Kazakhstan (41%), Australia (13%), Namibia (11%), Canada (7%)...everyone else (22%)
Renewables: We're not going to be able to scale up fast enough if it takes decades to get permits and fight lawsuits from the local communities.
Nuclear:
Just a little context for all the bros telling me Germany got off Russian gas easy-peasy. They did this by shifting to LNG imports from the US, not by ramping up renewables. They also increased coal consumption by 5%
Good news: I successfully proposed my thesis yesterday, now I’m ABD! Sadly, the only picture I have is me anxiously waiting for my committee to join the Zoom call
Really great Opinion here: "Nuclear Power Is More Important Than Ever. Retiring nuclear plants early was a bad idea. Failing to invest in new ones would be disastrous."
Some called it a nuclear winter. Cars kept their headlights on. This is what skies looked like this morning in Northern California, where wildfires are spreading at an astonishing rate.
I‘m not here to harp on renewables, BUT this does highlight the importance of thinking through lifecycle of all energy sources, not just the “bad” ones. Can solar panels be recycled? Where do they go now?
Yikes, that's some willful ignorance on the part of
@Greenpeace
. How out of touch do you have to be to see EU countries reconsidering nuclear and jump to a conspiracy about lobbying, rather than the super obvious Russian invasion of Ukraine, cut-off of gas supply, rising prices+
Really thought-provoking analysis of storage requirements in high-renewables energy systems. Answers a question I get *all the time* of why we need nuclear if renewables are so dang cheap.
[1] What determines storage requirements in a 100% RE (mainly PV + wind) system, and how much is really needed?
@OliverRuhnau
and I tried to figure this out in a new study using 35 years of hourly weather (re-analysis) data for Germany: THREAD...
@amyklobuchar
Of course the ladies have to explain parental leave, loved
@KamalaHarris
’ reasoning that women are having children later and are also more likely to bear the burden of caring for aging parents, need 6months leave. Resonates with me for sure.
We talk about the potential for coal-to-nuclear repowering a lot, but don't ignore the even more important "nuclear-to-nuclear", i.e. building new nuclear at retiring nuclear power sites:
Exciting news!!
@SuzyHobbsBaker
and I are launching a new organization next month called Good Energy Collective
@GoodEnergyColl
. Sign up for news, and be the first to hear about our launch event:
As I say in the article, it’s not really surprising that France is pushing for a big nuclear scale-up again, even with a large, costly design. Thinking long-term, economy-wide. “Why France is eyeing nuclear power again“ -James Temple
A very important conversation to have, should we stop letting biomass qualify as low-carbon? Europe’s renewable energy policy is built on burning American trees via
@voxdotcom
At a women's hiking meetup, had a great time, then right at the end the organizer I asked what I did...
Her: Like, you work at a power plant.
Me: No, more on the policy side.
Her: Oh good! I hate those people that claim nuclear is clean energy!
Me: Well, sorry to disappoint...
In the past few weeks, I've given several talks on
#advancednuclear
with folks who are not very familiar with the technology. It's been great to hear questions from new audiences who are open to nuclear, but also have valid concerns. These resources address those concerns...
France is pushing for more nuclear while Germany is closing nuclear plants. Helpful context to look at their current carbon intensity from
Germany's carbon intensity is over 5x higher than France today (6x higher than Sweden)
It's so so cool to see
@AOC
covering her trip to Fukushima (and nuclear more broadly) in her Instagram story highlights.
BUT super frustrating to see this image of an oil refinery fire still being used as a stock photo for the nuclear disaster after all these years
Should the U.S. embrace more Nuclear Energy? I’ll be moderating esteemed debaters on this topic
@ColoradoMesaU
April 10th, 5:30 PM MT! Don't miss out on this
@Steamboat_Inst
Debate and reserve your spot here or register to livestream from home: …
Wowzer, that’s bad. Oil almost generating more than nuclear in New England today. That’s like 1960s power grid, also renewables mostly garbage (literally!)
When it gets very cold in New England, they need to turn to oil to help run the grid. This morning, nearly one-quarter of power is coming from oil. With very high power prices, & nat gas prices at European levels (~6x the US benchmark Henry Hub price).
While I don't like nuclear being lumped with gas, by any metric nuclear is just as green as renewable energy. Also, the EU desperately needs more investment in nuclear to get off of fossils fuels ASAP and Russian gas even sooner
#NuclearBelongsIn
Look, I'm really happy that the renewables trend looks like this, but don't forget that the trend is not intrinsic to the tech but the result of policy and demand incentives. Nuclear's trend looked the same in the 1970s
@thiasi
Germany is relying heavily on their domestic coal. If you don't care about GHG emissions or local air pollution, this is fine, but...
The reason Europe became dependent on Russia for Uranium is entirely about cost, not limits on supply. Plenty of Uranium in Canada & Australia
Alright, I'll bite. (& I won't make you read my dissertation)
Factory-fabrication of modular technologies reduces costs over successive build for all kinds of big complex technologies, from Boeing 787s to gas turbines.
No reason to think SMRs would be different
Back to Russia, while they only produce ~6% of global uranium, that uranium has to be enriched before it can fuel nuclear power plants, & Russia had ~43% of global enrichment capacity in 2020. And then fuel fabrication is a whole separate issue...
@TerraPower
About 5-10 years ago, there were tons of papers ringing alarm bells about the dominance of Russia (and increasingly China) in the global export market for commercial nuclear. What can we do about it? I looked into for my dissertation:
I had never seen the Ivanpah Concentrating Solar Power plant in the wild. It’s crazy! Looks super futuristic. Photo taken from our car while driving by
I made a gif! What is the lowest cost source of *new* electricity generation by county (maps from
@EnergyUT
). The CO2 price grows from $0/ton to $75/ton. Orange=NG, Blue=nuclear, green=wind, purple=solar (utility-scale PV) Tool here:
Interesting to see
@UCSUSA
's own analysts argue that closing nuclear in California will very likely raise emissions, but not arguing that the plant should continue running, that's not even considered
Very excited to announce that I’m now a Fellow with Energy for Growth Hub
@energyforgrowth
! Looking forward to writing more about African ambitions for nuclear energy and the role that advanced reactors can play in accelerating development.
#Atoms4Africa
Very exciting news! Siting advanced nuclear in a new place (Wyoming) at a retiring coal plant, preserving jobs and diversifying the local economy, while reducing air pollution and complimenting the boom in wind energy
🚨NEWS🚨
TerraPower,
@GovernorGordon
and
@PacifiCorp
today announced efforts to advance a Natrium™ reactor demonstration project at a retiring coal plant in Wyoming.
Learn more:
Great study: most solar is on undeveloped land. When I talk about the footprint of renewables, I often hear “But solar can go on rooftops!” Yes, it *can*, but it doesn’t.
Big news today:
@TerraPower
submits a construction permit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
@NRCgov
for their 345MWe commercial demonstration project in Wyoming.
Whoa, first
@GavinNewsom
, now
@SenFeinstein
: "Why I changed my mind about California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear plant."
Reality is starting to sink in for California policy-makers concerned about climate change
Huh, that’s surprising: US nuclear plants produced record amount of electricity in 2018, beating out previous 2010 record (even though 5 GW of plants have retired since then)
To summarize some complicated energy policies:
- Germany said get those MF nuclear plants shut down
- Japan saying get those MF nuclear plants restarted
Why yes, I did just waste one minute of my day to respond to a troll's email claiming no climate scientists can explain to him what caused the ice ages. I sent him a lesson plan designed for 4th graders
Why it mattered so much that Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant was allowed to operate another few years, and why California should drop their ban on new nuclear
@thiasi
And yet it's still affordable electricity! The spent fuel can and should be recycled to get more energy out and reduce the waste (and reduce the need for fresh mining)
Happy this was written about...but I think the "bros" get off a little light. I've heard from many climate folks that they are open to nuclear, BUT really turned off by the toxic traits of nuclear bros (abusive DMs, gatekeeping, mockery, etc.)
I was very honored to be part of the study team for MIT’s “The Future of Nuclear in a Carbon Constrained World”, released today! I hope you find in challenging, inspiring, and useful!
to;dr (yeah, it’s 273 pages)
Main opportunity: decarbonization of power sector
Main challenge: cost of new designs
Main insight: there are many pathways to reduce costs
Main rec: gov support through smart policies can accel. innovation of adv. nuclear
Went down a bit of a rabbit hole yesterday looking at global capacity of clean energy (nuclear+hydro+renewables). First up, I realized it's easy to calculate global capacity factors (what percentage of the year a power plant is running). In 2020, nuclear was 78%, geothermal 74%
Hey
@Stanford
@StanfordEnergy
, any comment on Jacobson's lawsuit against PNAS? Will you stand idly by while your faculty harass journals and scientists, and undermine the peer-review process? You should take a stand to defend academic integrity. Or is bullying in your brand?
Of all the terrible things
@elonmusk
has done to Twitter, getting rid of link headlines is the most disruptive to my experience so far. I'm just constantly confused why someone has a random picture in their tweets
Hot off the presses! New article by me and
@jamesonmcb
in
@theNAEng
’s The Bridge: “Chasing Cheap Nuclear: Economic Trade-Offs for Small Modular Reactors”
Whoa, we take Veterans Day off and miss this announcement from
@WhiteHouse
, new initiative to: “move Europe from coal-fired plants to SMRs while retaining and retraining local jobs through U.S. support for coal-to-SMR feasibility studies and supporting activities.”
#COP27
Lots of news coming out of PA on bill to support nuclear power plants at risk of closing. Reminder that the aim is to treat them just like renewable, giving them credit for their clean air benefits
@mattyglesias
You can tell the people in charge come from a world where someone else has always taken care of their kids. Highlights why diversity (of all kinds) matters in policy making
3/4 This goes through 2030; that’s soon! Very few countries have policies supporting nuclear the way they do for renewables right now. That’s what this chart reflects, not any *intrinsic* limit to nuclear technologies.
In energy and climate discussion there's been a lot more focus recently on Environmental Justice, which is great and long overdue. We all know fossil plants tend to be located in marginalized communities, and I've had many people ask me lately if the same is true for nuclear...
But what about Kazakhstan? Largest producer of Uranium, yes, but also: about half of their uranium moves *through Russia* to get to market (the rest goes to China). They are an ally of Russia which raises concerns...
Why is Denmark approving a Russian gas pipeline to bring a lot more natural gas into Germany? Article cites nuclear closures in Germany, but high renewables penetration in Denmark could also be motivator. They need backup.
Give me a fucking break. You don't have to be an anti-nuclear activist to think mining for uranium in the Grand Canyon is a bad idea. You can be pro-nuclear and support tribal nations. The uranium in the US isn't even that good via
@IERenergy
It's that time of year: BP Statistical Review of World Energy has released their data for 2020. Some big take-aways...
Global CO2 emissions fell *a lot*, 6.3%! This is the largest single year drop in their data (back to 1965), and they say the largest drop since WWII
@CandiceMajewski
I look at small-small nukes that make heat and light, not bombs. Folks need heat and light, but don’t want the bad gas that comes with it when we use coal. I find how much these small-small nukes cost and if folks will want them in their towns.