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Advanced nuclear power plants, which will employ techniques such as
using fuels other than uranium and coolants other than water, have
attracted private investments from more than 40 companies from
Florida to Washington state, the Third Way think tank says in the
first report specifying the number of firms and total money invested
in the technologies.
The reactors, which could come into development in 10 to 15 years,
can help curb U.S. carbon emissions and make investments in
electricity generation less costly, researchers at Washington,
D.C.-based Third Way said in a report seen by Reuters and to be
released as soon as Monday.
Companies expressing faith in advanced nuclear power range from
Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's largest supplier, to Holtec
International, which is building a $260 million technology campus in
economically depressed Camden, New Jersey.
Gates has partially funded TerraPower, a company that aims to build
reactors cooled by liquid metal, and Allen has partially funded
TriAlpha, a company that plans to make nuclear fusion plants.
Investors "realize cost competitiveness is the name of the game,"
said Josh Freed, who directs the clean energy program at Third Way.
The reactors are "designed to be scalable so that they can produce
energy at a per megawatt hour cost that's competitive not just with
existing nuclear, but importantly with fossil fuels and renewable
energy."
Advanced nuclear reactors should be smaller than today's reactors,
and construction should take one to five years, rather than five to
six.
Critics of advanced nuclear say companies have yet to make small
reactors economically viable despite decades of development by
energy companies and the U.S. military. Advanced reactors using new
fuels, such as thorium, and new cooling systems, such as molten
salt, are also difficult to make economically viable, they say.
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The nuclear industry has also been weakened by a political backlash
following radioactive leaks at Japan's Fukushima power plant in
2011. And the U.S. natural gas boom has slashed the cost of that
fuel, making it harder for nuclear power to compete.
The Third Way report was not funded by the nuclear industry. But the
think tank has received financial support from The Nuclear Energy
Institute, the industry's lobby group, and Babcock & Wilcox, a
company hoping to build small nuclear reactors.
Late last year, Lockheed said it made a breakthrough in developing a
power source based on nuclear fusion. The company said the first
reactors for this new technology, small enough to fit on the back of
a truck, could be ready in a decade.
The companies say they are exploiting advances in material science
and computer-assisted manufacturing that could help breakthroughs
become realities before 2030.
(Story corrects paragraph 6 to say TerraPower is working on reactors
cooled by liquid metal, not fueled)
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Bruce Wallace and David
Gregorio)
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