This is a publication of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which established a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on “Sodium properties and safe operation of experimental facilities in support of the development and deployment of sodium cooled fast reactors” (NAPRO) in order to promote an efficient collaboration between organizations involved in sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) programmes at the national and international levels. Chirayu Batra of LucidCatalyst is a contributing researcher and author. The cover image of the publication is his CFD model of a fast reactor subassembly.

This new National Academies’ report discusses how the US could support the successful commercialization of advanced nuclear reactors with near-term actions to establish policies and practices. Kirsty Gogan of LucidCatalyst was part of the committee that oversaw and wrote this report.

Eric Ingersoll of LucidCatalyst contributed to this MIT study showing how SMR designs leverage five factors that make them more economically competitive than large reactors: 1) multiple units; 2) increased factory production and learning; 3) reduced construction schedules; 4) plant design simplification and 5) unit timing.

To understand some of the real-world challenges of decarbonization, ClearPath and LucidCatalyst collected a database of all county-level wind ordinances in Iowa. We then conducted a detailed geospatial downscaling analysis of the Princeton Net-Zero America Project (NZAP) 2050 wind energy projections for each county in Iowa, applying each county’s setback requirements and standards. We qualitatively considered transmission and interconnection issues that could limit clean energy growth of all varieties. Ultimately, the wind development challenges in Iowa are common across the U.S. and should be incorporated into deep decarbonization modeling and clean energy policy.

LucidCatalyst partnered with ClearPath to develop this study, led and implemented by John Herter and Ian Woodhouse of LucidCatalyst. Eric Ingersoll provided the inspiration based on the idea that energy models must realistically reflect the true costs and risks associated with each energy source. Reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require a massive infrastructure build-out over the next 28 years, involving deploying enough clean electricity generation to meet all our needs while building the infrastructure necessary to electrify industry and transport along the way. Detailed computer models can optimize for the cheapest paths to achieve net-zero but cannot easily account for the political feasibility of the energy systems they project. Several constraints could limit the future ability to decarbonize, ranging from local opposition to regulatory delays, supply chain issues, and workforce capacity.

This report by LucidCatalyst shows how nuclear energy helps meet all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. No other electricity generation technology can match this diversity of beneficial impacts. The report argues that the priority for preventing irreversible climate change is decarbonisation, not the creation of energy systems which are 100% dependent on renewables. It is critical to take a whole system approach to the energy transition and for evidence-based decision making. In the context of the increasing urgency to replace fossil fuels, the range of low carbon options must include nuclear.

RAD WASTE SOLUTIONS — Spring 2022 issue — Eric Ingersoll of LucidCatalyst co-authored this paper with Charles Forsberg and Jacopo Buongiorno (MIT) — There are large economic and institutional incentives to colocate many fuel cycle facilities with the repository, and also to colocate proposed fission battery factories and nuclear hydrogen/synthetic fuel gigafactories with other waste management facilities (used fuel storage, low-level waste disposal, etc.) to create nuclear technology hubs that create economic savings, generate jobs and tax revenue, and simplify waste management.

This study, prepared by LucidCatalyst for EPRI, identifies potential deployment paths for using advanced heat sources for producing zero-carbon liquid fuels. Nuclear (fission) technology is an energy-dense, dispatchable, non-emitting, and scalable heat source. We present four conceptual scenarios illustrating how advanced nuclear heat sources can be configured, fabricated, and delivered to participate in and decarbonize global fuel and other commodity markets. The scenarios employ innovative deployment models to substantially reduce project cost, schedule, and risk. The produced commodities are intended to provide drop-in substitutes for large, established markets to minimize or eliminate disruption of an existing supply chain infrastructure and consumer behavior.

IAEA Director General and leading experts discuss nuclear law-safety, security, safeguards, and liability. This volume focuses on current issues in the field and identifies potential areas for further development. LucidCatalyst's Missing Link report (Missing Link to a Livable Climate: How Hydrogen-Enabled Synthetic Fuels Can Help Deliver Paris Goals) is referenced and discussed in Chapter 6 "The Challenge of Climate Change—Complete Energy Transformation: No Nuclear, No Net Zero," by Tim Stone, and also in Chapter 13 "The Humanitarian Atom: The Role of Nuclear Power in Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," by Sam Bilbao y Leon and John Lindberg.

Eric Ingersoll of LucidCatalyst co-authored this important paper about seismic isolation. ABSTRACT: Nuclear energy has a key role to play in global decarbonization. Impediments to the widespread deployment of reactors are their projected high capital cost. The earthquake load case is a key cost driver for a new build nuclear plant, because near-surface soils and seismic hazard are different at each site. To enable deployment at the scale needed for deep decarbonization, the cost and time impact of the seismic load case must be significantly mitigated, and plants must be standardized. Scheme-level designs of two fundamentally different advanced reactor buildings were developed to assemble cost data on the influence of the seismic load case. Standardization of safety-class equipment is made possible by seismic isolation, that is, equipment designed for minimal seismic robustness can resist earthquake shaking at a site of much higher seismic hazard. The average reduction in the capital cost of the safety-related equipment, enabled by seismic isolation, is a factor of two for first-of-a-kind equipment and a factor of five for standardized equipment.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California, the only one still operating in the state, is set to close in 2025. Eric Ingersoll and Justin Aborn of LucidCatalyst joined a team of researchers at MIT’s Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab, and Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research; Stanford’s Precourt Energy Institute; to analyze the potential benefits the plant could provide if its operation were extended to 2030 or 2045.

Superhot rock (SHR) has been called the “holy grail” of geothermal energy—because, in most of the world, SHR could provide competitive, zero-carbon, dispatchable power and support zero-carbon hydrogen fuel production. It is one of the very few high-energy-density, zero-carbon resources that could replace fossil energy around the globe. John Herter and Eric Ingersoll of LucidCatalyst contributed to this important Clean Air Task Force (CATF) report.

Kirsty Gogan was a reviewer on this important report about restarting the conversation about nuclear energy, which will require the right audience, messengers, messages, and technology. Nuclear energy has been broadly misunderstood by the public, who are apt to conflate nuclear energy with nuclear weapons, associate it with fossil fuels, and overestimate the risks associated with nuclear accidents and waste disposal. They also underestimate how much energy nuclear produces, its environmental benefits, and its remarkable record of safe operation.

LucidCatalyst, working with Urenco and Aurora Energy Research, published this Insights Report about how hydrogen produced with nuclear energy can contribute to Net Zero.

Urenco published the findings from an independent study that it initiated with Aurora Energy Research to investigate the benefits of deploying both nuclear and renewables in hydrogen production, to support the energy transition and meet UK climate targets. To facilitate rapid decarbonisation and cut dependency on fossil fuels, both nuclear and renewables are needed for power and hydrogen production. The report was supported by the IAEA, EDF and LucidCatalyst.

LucidCatalyst wrote this Insights Report about high-temperature geothermal, which we believe is an untapped resource that can be configured and delivered to cost-competitively decarbonize global fuels markets. This approach would use proven chemical production processes. Furthermore, the commodities being produced are ‘drop-in’ substitutes such that they do not require changes (or require relatively minor changes) to existing supply chain infrastructure or consumer behavior. Consequently, developers do not need to wait for technological, supply chain, or regulatory changes to take advantage of these opportunities.

LucidCatalyst contributed to this ground-breaking new modelling report just published by NNL demonstrating the role nuclear can play in delivering the UK’s net zero goals. This is the first time that such diverse, scalable and low-cost applications for nuclear technologies have been fully represented across the whole energy system.

Authors Forsberg and Ingersoll write that the viability of nuclear power ultimately depends on economics. The most important factor is an efficient supply chain, including on-site construction practices. This is the basis for the low capital cost of light water reactors from China and South Korea. The design can significantly affect capital cost through its impact on supply chain. The question is, how can advanced reactors boost revenue and reduce cost?

Our report shows that it’s not too late to still meet the Paris goals – but only if we are prepared to make major investments in clean hydrogen production. There is simply no other way to make the numbers add up – this truly is the missing link we need to maintain a liveable climate on this planet.

By Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan, IAEA Bulletin. The Clean Energy Ministerial Flexible Nuclear Campaign we co-founded explores the expanded role that nuclear energy can play in de-risking the energy transition. Here, we describe two opportunities to drive deeper decarbonization with nuclear energy: 1) expand role of nuclear energy in electricity production through a combination of advanced reactors and thermal energy storage to complement renewables in future energy grids; 2) address the use of oil and gas by providing large-scale, low-cost hydrogen produced with nuclear power.

In this article, published in the The Bridge (National Academy of Engineering), authors Eric Ingersoll, Kirsty Gogan, and Giorgio Locatelli describe how the US nuclear sector can shift to standardized products with replicable designs delivered by consistent, experienced suppliers, as demonstrated by experience in other countries.

The LucidCatalyst team was honored to be invited to write both the NGO Foreword (with Energy for Humanity and ClearPath Foundation) as well as a dedicated chapter in the report focused on flexible advanced reactors in future energy grids and innovative new hydrogen production facilities.

Energy Systems Catapult has just released the full technical report from the Energy Technologies Institute Nuclear Cost Drivers (ETI NCD) project by LucidCatalyst. This report demonstrates a credible path for nuclear energy to become a competitive Net Zero solution alongside renewables.

In 2018 LucidCatalyst led the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) Nuclear Cost Drivers Study (NCD) suggesting that UK nuclear new build has very significant cost and risk reduction potential. The 30% Cost Reduction Working Group therefore commissioned LucidCatalyst to apply the insights gained in the ETI NCD Study to produce this short report.

A new study by LucidCatalyst for the ARPA-E MEITNER program is the first to derive the highest allowable capital cost for advanced reactors across four of the major power markets in the US in 2034. Advanced reactors that cost less than $3,000/kW will be attractive investments, and create the most value for plant owners. The study shows how advanced reactors can complement wind and solar. Together, these technologies drive down costs, reduce emissions, and improve performance in future U.S. electricity grids.

LucidCatalyst and its partners created this report for the European Commission Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, as well as for the international investment and financing community, to help them fairly and robustly evaluate the overall sustainability of nuclear energy as an investment. Our central finding is that nuclear energy is a sustainable energy investment.

This report is a culmination of meetings and effort from Partnership for Global Security and the Nuclear Energy Institute under the Global Nexus Initiative. Advanced nuclear reactors, the smaller, flexible, and innovative nuclear technologies of the future, are rising in importance as the global community grapples with the vital challenges of cutting carbon emissions, supporting the global demand for electric power, and ensuring the continued peaceful use of nuclear energy in the 21st century. LucidCatalyst contributed.

Kirsty Gogan contributed to this report, which focuses on the role of nuclear power in advanced economies and the factors that put nuclear power at risk of future decline. It is shown that without action, nuclear power in advanced economies could fall by two-thirds by 2040. The implications of such a “Nuclear Fade Case” for costs, emissions and electricity security using two World Energy Outlook scenarios – the New Policies Scenario and the Sustainable Development Scenario are examined.

The UK’s Nuclear Innovation & Research Advisory Board (NIRAB) has recommended that the UK Government should consider investing up to GBP1 billion (USD1.3 billion) between 2021 and 2025 to boost the progress of innovation in the nuclear energy sector. Kirsty Gogan of LucidCatalyst is a member of NIRAB and contributor to this report.

LucidCatalyst is providing support and staffing for the Flexible Nuclear Campaign led by EFH, EON, and NREL, which is a campaign of the NICE Future Initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial.

LucidCatalyst created a Stakeholder Engagement Curriculum for newcomer countries on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The workshop aims to provide a basic grounding in the concepts and best practices of stakeholder involvement for a broad variety of participants, drawn from around the globe and across the full range of nuclear activities.