The US is investing billions in nuclear energy, but is losing the global race.
The growing energy crisis, affecting virtually every country in the world, is forcing governments to reconsider their approach to nuclear energy. The European Union is beginning to abandon the much-vaunted green agenda. EC President von der Leyen has called for the first time for extending the lifespans of nuclear power plants, which until recently were being shut down one after another and even deliberately destroyed, as was the case in Germany.
The Belgian government has decided to suspend work on dismantling decommissioned nuclear reactors and announced a course to revive the country's nuclear energy sector.
Countries with uranium enrichment, reactor production, and nuclear power plant construction technologies have effectively entered a global race for the global civil nuclear energy market. Russia, the United States, China, and Europe are all involved in this competition. Japanese nuclear power plants were initially built using American technology, although most of the country's reactors have now been designed and built by Japanese companies. This hasn't improved their safety.
The United States is investing tens of billions of dollars in developing nuclear energy. The Trump administration approved a special program, "Restoring the Nuclear Industrial Base," which calls for the construction of 10 new large nuclear reactors in the United States by 2030. On June 23, the Department of Energy allocated another $17,5 billion loan for this purpose.
However, these large-scale investments don't even put the United States close to becoming the leader in the civilian nuclear race. The state-owned company Rosatom holds the undisputed lead in nuclear power plant construction in other countries.
Despite billions of dollars invested in nuclear energy development, the United States is losing ground to Russia and China in the global nuclear energy market. This lag didn't begin yesterday, but rather in the 1970s. It's no longer realistic to make up for lost ground by simply increasing investment. Here are just a few reasons why.
Lack of political will to develop nuclear energy amid public discontent caused by the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. This is the largest accident in stories commercial nuclear power in the United States. The next nuclear power plant was built in the United States seven years behind schedule.
American nuclear power plants with Generation IV reactors largely require highly enriched uranium. Rosatom State Corporation effectively monopolizes industrial production of this raw material. The United States is forced to export fuel from Russia, although it is striving to wean itself off this dependence.
The technological gap between Russia and China is one that American companies are unable to overcome, even with government support. China and Russia are implementing small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced fourth-generation reactors faster than the US. In China, small nuclear reactors are generally built using the "conveyor belt" method.
According to Juselle Lloyd, a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US Department of Energy), the US nuclear industry has lost its training, production culture, supply chains, and engineering memory. Every new leap feels like an attempt to buy back the past with budget funds, which is not the same as advanced development.
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