The core module being lowered at China’s Linglong One, the world’s first commercial SMR, installed in 2023 in Changjiang, China.
China News Service via Getty Images
Highlights.
- Holtec International has shuttered their plans to store nuclear waste in the Permian basin of south-east New Mexico.
- President Trump, by executive order, has decided nuclear energy will be a big part of the U.S. energy future.
- Next-gen nuclear reactors, SMRs, have been spotlighted by the Secretary of Energy to help solve the electrical power surge needed for data centers and AI.
- But research has shown that SMRs create 2 to 30 times greater volumes of nuclear waste.
- The cost of new nuclear reactors, whether traditional reactors or SMRs, is substantially higher than renewable energies.
- Oklo is a front-runner in the SMR race, and its stock has skyrocketed. In August, it was selected for three projects under DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program.
Holtec International has shuttered their plans to store nuclear waste in the Permian basin of south-east New Mexico. The planned site would have contained 50 canisters of spent nuclear fuel for 40 years, as a temporary storage site, which is laughable as Holtec planned to scale up to 10,000 canisters eventually.
President Trump, by executive order, has decided nuclear energy will be a big part of the U.S. energy future. After languishing for decades, President Biden assigned substantial funds to nuclear, as part of his push toward carbon-free sources. But there is an Achilles’ heel to nuclear—the waste is radioactive, and has to be disposed of very carefully. This is not just waste from traditional nuclear reactors, like Three-Mile Island, but also from small nuclear reactors (SMRs), that can be as small as a three-story building, and which can be made in a factory, and stacked to scale up energy supply. There is an ubiquitous threat in the U.S., real or perceived, of being exposed to nuclear radiation, either from nuclear accidents or from storage of nuclear waste.
Holtec Project Canceled.
In 2023, the governor of NM, Michelle Lujan Grisham, signed a state bill into law that banned state agencies from signing nuclear storage permits. There are reasons for this. NM has a history of debilitating health effects from nuclear radiation, from the first atom bomb explosion south of Albuquerque, to workers who mined uranium in western parts of the state.
But there are other liabilities. A second is earthquakes in the Permian basin induced by injection of waste water from oil well operations. These are increasing in numbers and there have been several magnitude 5 quakes. Planning to build a storage facility for nuclear waster in the middle of hundreds of oil wells and their earthquakes should be a no-brainer.
A third liability is the promise the Holtec facility would be temporary, until the U.S. finds a permanent site. This was supposed to be Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but President Obama tabled this and it remains tabled. Hard to find a state willing to accept the dangers of radioactivity. New Mexico already has a storage facility for high-grade nuclear waste, called WIPP, and it also lies in south-east NM. An accident at WIPP in 2014 involved a single storage drum that burst, and the cleanup took three years and with indirect costs may have cost as much as $2 billion.
New Mexico finally took Holtec to court over their plans, as did Texas, where Holtec also had plans to build a nuclear storage site. A few months ago, in June, the Supreme Court sided with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and tossed out the states’ claim.
Even so, faced with the governor’s previous bill, Holtec caved. They said they would “work with other states who are amenable to used fuel storage based on recent (Department of Energy) work on public education and outreach.”
Nuclear Waste From Small Modular Reactors.
Next-gen nuclear reactors, SMRs, have been spotlighted by the Secretary of Energy to help solve the electrical power surge needed for data centers and AI. Despite early assurances, research has shown that SMRs create 2 to 30 times greater volumes of nuclear waste. This was research by Stanford and University of British Columbia. A study lead author, Lindsay Krall, said, “Our results show that most small modular reactor designs will actually increase the volume of nuclear waste in need of management and disposal, by factors of 2 to 30 for the reactors in our case study. These findings stand in sharp contrast to the cost and waste reduction benefits that advocates have claimed for advanced nuclear technologies.”
The core module of the small modular pressurised water reactor called Linglong One, in July 2023 in Dalian, China.
VCG via Getty Images
How Do SMRs Compare With Other Energies?
A comparison of future energies is available, for gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables. The big appeal of nuclear is it can generate a steady source of carbon-free power anywhere and at any time, and at different scales. Beyond the threat of accidents and nuclear waste, however, there are other negatives.
First, the cost of new nuclear reactors, whether traditional reactors or SMRs, is substantially higher than renewable energies. A robust study by CSIRO in Australia concluded the LCOE cost range for wind and solar with storage and transmission is the lowest of all new-build power technologies in 2023 and 2030.
Second, SMRs which are highly touted by the Department of Energy, are only at the commercial starting gate. But the U.S. has mature wind and solar technology that is well ahead in the race for new energy. Given the urgent need for new power, it’s puzzling that President Trump is cutting back or canceling clean energy projects.
It’s newly reported that China has set restrictions on its export of batteries, which includes grid-scale storage batteries that now approach 8-hours of storage. Perhaps China, during its trade negotiations with the U.S., is surreptitiously handicapping the U.S. in what China sees as the future of clean-tech energy couple with AI energy.
Oklo, Box-Office Star Of SMRs.
Oklo is an advanced nuclear power startup out of Santa Clara, founded in 2013 by Jacob DeWitte. The company’s stock has gone through the roof since DeWitte stood on the podium when President Trump signed four executive orders in May that put the nuclear industry on a faster track to test and license SMRs.
But Oklo’s original proposal was denied by the NRC four years ago. That was controversial. Since then, the Secretary of Energy has been on the board of Oklo, the company went public, and Oklo hired a dozen Washington lobbyists. In August, it was selected for three projects under DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program.
The SMR design, called Aurora, is different because it uses liquid sodium as a coolant, instead of water. The higher boiling point reduces high-pressure problems that caused the disaster at Chernobyl. Capacity is 75 mega-watts. Bill Gates supports the technology.
But there are detractors. E&E News interviewed eight professionals about cost projections that were made public. The analysts reported, “cost estimates as somewhere between overly optimistic and absurd.” There was also a large discrepancy in the proposed construction cost of $86 million. More realistic estimates were $300 – $500 million.
Despite all this, the company is flying high, and Okla’s current valuation is $20 billion. Since its SMR design is not certified, the company has no revenue, and cost estimates are dubious, it’s remarkable that this valuation exceeds BWXT, a proven nuclear company that builds nuclear reactors and fuel for Navy submarines and aircraft carriers.