Interest in nuclear energy intensifies, amid oil and gas price spikes, climate crisis

The South Texas Nuclear Generating Station near Bay City, Texas.

WASHINGTON — Top officials from nations around the world said Wednesday they were rethinking their decadeslong skepticism toward nuclear power, amid global spikes in oil and natural gas prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a long-term effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite ongoing concern around the high costs and safety implications of nuclear power, government officials are now looking at nuclear as a means to protect themselves against commodity price spikes and shore up their electrical grids against the inconsistencies of wind and solar energy.

At a conference hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Washington on Wednesday, government ministers from wealthy and developing nations alike took turns declaring their commitment to nuclear energy as a means to address climate change.

"We know what is happening in Ukraine is having every country reevaluate whether they want their energy sourced from one country or an opportunity to generate their own power," said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. "Nuclear is at the top of the list given the climate crisis."

Seven years after France's National Assembly voted to cut the nation's reliance on nuclear power, President Emmanuel Macron announced earlier this year plans to build at least six new plants. Germany has delayed the closure of its three nuclear plants as it rethinks the future of nuclear power there, and the United Kingdom is building two new nuclear plants.

In the United States, Congress recently approved the creation of a nuclear power tax credit to delay the further closure of plants, at the same time the Department of Energy and private investors such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are pouring billions of dollars into developing next-generation nuclear reactors they hope will not have the safety and cost issues of existing nuclear reactors.

"We are starting to see progress, but only now after decades of stunted policies," said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which reports to the United Nations. "The change is palpable and seen in countries that are mature and confirmed users of nuclear energy like the United States."

Nuclear energy, which produces no greenhouse gas emissions, has been a logical but controversial solution to the climate crisis, a well-established technology with a history that stretches back more than half a century. But sporadic disasters, most recently the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, has long given government officials pause and helped drive opposition from environmental groups.

But 10 months after Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border — driving natural gas and power prices in Europe remain to many times normal levels — officials are willing to give nuclear another look.

"I said last year nuclear is set to make a comeback. And after the invasion of Ukraine, the wind behind nuclear is now much stronger," said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, which advises governments worldwide on energy policy. "We are in the middle of the first truly global energy crisis."

Also driving governments’ interest is the development of next-generation reactors that are not only more efficient but theoretically meltdown proof.

So far no advanced reactors are being built for commercial operation. But some companies are moving into the testing phase, with Terra Energy, Gates's nuclear startup, getting ready to build a small-scale advanced reactor at a closed coal power plant in Wyoming.

"We’re at a pivotal moment for energy innovation, much like the life-changing breakthrough that's led to the personal computer," Gates said in a video appearance at Wednesday's conference.

The question facing government officials is not only whether that technology will prove out but whether the nuclear industry can scale up fast enough to meet climate targets of net-zero emissions by midcentury.

After decades of declining interest in the technology, the supply chains for nuclear equipment and the uranium on which reactors rely to generate power are in disrepair, and regulations are out of date, said Bill Magwood, director-general of the Nuclear Energy Agency, a division of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

However, he said government officials have begun to realize how little progress has been made on climate change and are eager to find solutions to expanding nuclear energy.

"You had some discussions (five years ago), but nothing like we’re seeing today," he said. "This is a level of enthusiasm we probably haven't seen since the 1960s."

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