Nuclear Energy: A New Beginning ? | Jacopo Buongiorno (MIT)

Harnessing the power of the atomic nucleus for peaceful purposes was one of the most astonishing scientific and technological achievements of the 20th century. It has benefitted medicine, security, and energy. Yet, after a few decades of rapid growth, investment in nuclear energy has stalled in many developed countries and nuclear energy now constitutes a meager 5% of global primary energy production.
In the 21st century the world faces the new challenge of drastically reducing emissions of greenhouse gases while simultaneously expanding access to energy and economic opportunity for billions of people. In the new MIT study presented here, we have examined
this challenge in the electricity sector, which has been widely identified as an early candidate for deep decarbonization. In most regions, serving projected electricity load in 2050 while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require a mix of electrical generation
assets that is different from the current system. While a variety of low- or zero-carbon technologies can be employed in various combinations, our analysis shows that excluding nuclear energy as an option may significantly increase the cost of achieving deep
decarbonization targets. The least-cost portfolios in our analysis include an important share for nuclear, and the magnitude of this share grows substantially as the cost of nuclear energy drops. Despite this promise, prospects for the expansion of nuclear energy remain decidedly dim in many parts of the world. In this study, we have examined what is needed to reverse that trend. The salient findings will be presented in this talk.

SPEAKER : professor Jacobo Buongiorno
• TEPCO Professor and Associate Department Head of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT
• Director of the Center for Advanced Energy Systems (CANES), which is one of eight Low-Carbon-Energy Centers (LCEC) of the MIT Energy initiative (MITEI), as well as the Director of the MIT study on the Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World.
• He has published over 80 journal articles in the areas of nuclear energy system innovation, reactor design and safety, boiling heat transfer, and nanofluid technology .

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PAPER :

#NuclearEnergy #NuclearPower #Decarbonization

[heathernewcomb]

Thank you Sir! This is so straight forward and accessible! Bravo, Jacopo Buongiorno!