I am disappointed with this paper!
(“US Nuclear Energy Deployment Framework” pdf can be read here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/US-Nuclear-Energy-Deployment-Framework.pdf)
Missing pieces include:
1) Creating a supply base to create the reactors, what is missing is a link to the supply chain to business, subsidies and tax credits are great, but why go to the trouble when there is no construction to supply.
2) Training engineers, operators, scientists, and craftspersons. While p.28 is about a lack of work force, the 2 recommendations, do not begin to look at creating operator education programs (or facilities with simulators to train operators), nor does it touch on engineering needs.
3) Creating a mechanism to recycle fuel
4) Focus on what to deploy and cost learning (it seems any nuclear design is finep.8) [p.9 “however their costs and construction times did not achieve the desired level of positive learning, in large part because most plants were built with unique, bespoke designs”] Which one does the paper recommend?
5) While availability of fuel is mentioned (p19), how to get there is not.
6) Licensing gets a whole page (p27), but beyond the NRC, no other agency is mentioned for permitting (e.g., EPA, etc.)
7) Water and water use, not mentioned once
In reading the paper it feels like President Obama all over again with his statement “I fully support nuclear, once all the problems are solved.” He then promptly closed Yucca Mountain, and nothing was done about nuclear.
This paper really needs to address permitting from end to end, series construction of a design, how suppliers who tool up get made whole if plants are not built, recycling fuel rods (15 years of fuel sitting in casks), advanced cooling systems that minimize water use, how to use the waste heat, and other issues that make the whole nuclear ecosystem more efficient.
It feels like a quarter effort, quickly thrown together, to put a stake in the ground, not a serious document.
I would give it a grade of “C” for a final paper for an Introduction to Engineering course.
Let us hope that the Federal Government gets serious about not just creating a paper, but an actual construction plan!
