Theme: 3. Sustainability

Topic Area: 3a. Entrepreneurship in Sustainability

Background/Objectives:

Many nations around the world are actively developing reliable, resilient clean energy systems for the global market. While many strategists initially look to renewable energy sources to meet the increasing demand for clean energy, there is growing recognition for nuclear energy—which currently provides about one-third of the world’s emissions-free electricity—as a key contributor to global clean energy supply.

As such, the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) launched the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE Future) initiative in 2018 to lead the global conversation on the role of nuclear energy in providing clean heat and electricity (https://nice-future.org). Launched by the US, Canada, and Japan, the initiative has also welcomed the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, France, Jordan, Kenya, Poland, Romania, Russia, the United Arab Emirates as participating countries. Numerous organizations around the world have added their voices and expertise to advance the NICE Future goals. The initiative provides a platform for joint analysis, knowledge transfer, and sharing of lessons learned—all of which are necessary to accelerate progress toward achieving a net-zero emissions global future.

Approach/Activities:

Since 2018, NICE Future and its partners have hosted numerous workshops, webinars, sessions, and events to raise visibility for nuclear energy as a key contributor to clean energy solutions. The initiative has organized its efforts around four campaigns that highlight key focus areas to advance the dialogue on how nuclear energy can bolster economic growth, energy security, and environmental stewardship.

The initial Breakthroughs campaign published a foundational resource in 2019 that provides insight into innovative opportunities for nuclear technologies that are in currently in research, development, demonstration phases around the world. This early partnership led to a compilation of broader research in Flexible Nuclear Energy for Clean Energy Systems. Culminating in a 2020 publication, this campaign highlights an array of technical analyses on the contributions of nuclear energy to electricity system flexibility for current nuclear energy deployments and planned advanced nuclear energy systems. Next generation systems will be deployed into grids having increasing contributions from variable renewable generators, requiring additional flexibility. Nuclear energy can operate flexibly in many ways, ranging from varying their operating power level or redirecting energy (heat, electricity, or both) to support hydrogen production, water purification, industrial heat demands, or to be stored for later use, as a function of varying energy demands.

In 2022 NICE Future launched its campaign to Research the Impacts on Social Equity and Economic Empowerment (RISE³) to provide access to expert resources in energy system planning and implementation, and to create a “blueprint” for countries pursuing transition to a clean, just energy economy by leveraging nuclear innovation. RISE³ provides recommendations on technology options and deployment scenarios to support an equitable and just energy transition, examines the use of flexible nuclear energy in remote or off-grid regions and its impact in lifting economies, and provides a platform to track community transformations via jobs and other economic impacts. In 2023, the RISE³ campaign launched the online journal RISE3D to enable regular update to case studies in this fast-paced area of development.

The most recent NICE Future campaign, Leaders in Advanced Nuclear Energy (LANE), launched in 2023. LANE actively enables participating countries and organizations to conduct joint analyses on integration of advanced reactor technologies with renewables; perform economic modeling; share financing approaches; evaluate candidate non-grid applications for nuclear integration; provide workforce development opportunities; and establish shared approaches for messaging and communication.

Results/Lessons Learned:

Research laboratories, organizations, and governments around the world must consider all clean energy options in developing a plan to accomplish a net-zero future for electricity, industry, and transportation. At the COP28 meeting in Dubai in December 2023, 22 world leaders signed a declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050—an historic recognition of the role of nuclear energy in mitigating climate change. With so many groups working toward the same overarching goal, collaboration will undoubtedly accelerate advancement and adoption of innovative technologies and novel approaches to their deployment. Numerous organizations already contribute to the global dialogue on a wide range of nuclear topics. NICE Future acknowledges these efforts and, through the recently launched LANE campaign, intends to leverage this wealth of existing work and resources while advancing approaches to integrate nuclear energy with renewable generation and industrial applications. The NICE Future initiative encourages engagement of the global clean energy community in both of its ongoing campaigns, LANE and RISE³, to further to accelerate the transition to a clean, reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy future that embraces all clean energy technologies—nuclear and renewables. This presentation will provide a deeper dive into the successes and opportunities provided by NICE Future to accomplishing global clean energy goals.

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Shannon Bragg-Sitton