Making Nuclear Energy Cheap: The View From The Breakthrough Institute

I have been wanting to highlight this review of strategies to make nuclear energy cheap and efficient from the Breakthrough Institute for a while. The report contains many cogent recommendations and projects a promising future for nuclear power if the right steps are taken. What I like about it is that it takes a kind of systems engineering approach to the problem, highlighting not just technical but also economic issues related to supply chains and the use of existing materials and frameworks to make nuclear both cheap and safe.

The report illuminates four major factors inherent in the successful operation and deployment of nuclear reactors – including new designs – and then explores them in the context of Generation III and Generation IV reactors. These are:

1. Safety: Includes being able to operate reactors at ambient pressures and using high tolerance and safe fuels and coolants.
2. Modularity: Entails being able to build reactors piecemeal and ship them to sites. The design also makes for quicker disassembly and promises reductions in both costs and risk.
3. Thermal efficiency: Being able to operate reactors at higher temperatures using more temperature-resistant materials can clearly make their more efficient and cheaper.
4. Readiness: Readiness involves being able to use existing materials, supply chains and even legal and technical frameworks to make the design and commissioning of new nuclear reactors as easy as possible...