How next-gen nuclear could help meet energy demands – and the risks involved

[0:00] bjbjLULU GWEN IFILL, The Trump administration has rolled back support for many forms of [0:03] clean energy. One exception is nuclear power. The president wants to quadruple U.S. nuclear [0:09] capacity by 2050. And a new generation of advanced reactors is in development that some [0:15] say could signal the dawn of a new nuclear age. Our correspondent Paul Solman reports [0:21] as part of our series Tipping Point. PAUL SOLMAN, 25 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee, [0:27] a construction site designed to spark a nuclear power renaissance. PAUL SOLMAN, This is the [0:32] site where Kairos Power is currently building, the only nuclear reactor under construction [0:37] in the United States right now. PAUL SOLMAN, First step for Kairos, Mike [0:40] Laufer's start-up, a demo of a small modular reactor called Hermes, as in this rendering, [0:47] being built right where the nuclear age was born. MIKE LAUFER, First step for Kairos, [0:50] first step for Kairos, Mike Laufer's start-up, a demo of a small modular reactor called Hermes, [0:51] as in this rendering, being built right where the nuclear age was born. MIKE LAUFER, Oak [0:52] Ridge, it came into existence because of the Manhattan Project. So this is K-25. PAUL SOLMAN, [0:57] 25 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee, a construction site designed to spark a nuclear power renaissance. [0:57] MILES O' Ray Smith says, 80 years ago, this very area housed the vast complex that [1:03] made the stuff of atomic bombs. JOHN非JEN, All of the highly enriched [1:07] uranium, the nation has today. MILES O' For weapons, that is. But, by the [1:12] time I was in school, the atom was our friend. On TV's Disneyland series, for example, touting [1:22] the switch from nuclear threat to nuclear promise. Then came Three Mile Island, Shanghai, [1:28] New York, employment at home, manhunt to the Moon. All the way from Omaha, "...Nuclear [1:28] Chernobyl, Fukushima, safety regulations and complex new technologies, hamstrung development [1:35] causing long delays, huge cost overruns. [1:39] Today there are 54 nuclear plants in the U.S. [1:42] Most, however, were built long ago, average age 42 years. [1:46] So says CEO Mike Laufer. [1:47] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, It's going to be the first reactor that [1:52] Kairos builds. [1:53] PAUL SOLMAN, It's time for new nuclear. [1:55] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, It's clean. [1:56] It's reliable. [1:58] If done correctly, it can certainly be affordable. [2:00] PAUL SOLMAN, Now, the Hermes reactor is much smaller than current nuclear plants. [2:04] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, The big benefit of small is that it reduces [2:08] the cost, the total cost of the amount of money that needs to go in. [2:10] PAUL SOLMAN, As in older reactors, atoms of uranium-235 will split apart. [2:17] That chain reaction produces heat, usable energy. [2:20] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, That uranium is packaged in these golf [2:23] ball-sized graphite balls. [2:25] Each one of these contains about 16,000 gallons. [2:28] 16,000 tiny poppy-seed-sized particles of uranium, that's where that splitting is happening. [2:33] The uranium in each one of these balls produces about as much power as about four tons of [2:38] coal. [2:39] PAUL SOLMAN, Balls more efficient than the nuclear rods of old, but a key difference [2:43] from the usual big reactors, a special molten salt transfers the heat instead of water. [2:51] Another distinction, modules are built in a New Mexico factory, then assembled at the [2:57] site. [2:58] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, The main feature of our deployment model [2:59] is really trying to take the Henry Ford model. [3:01] PAUL SOLMAN, Chief Technology Officer at Blanford studied nuclear engineering with [3:05] Mike Laufer at UC Berkeley. [3:07] MIKE LAUFER, Chief Technology Officer at Blanford, USA, How do we take the construction [3:09] site, bring it into more of an assembly line environment, and really be able to get that [3:14] repetitive learning that you can do in an indoor factory environment? [3:17] PAUL SOLMAN, The goal, faster construction, lower cost. [3:21] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, It's really a combination of being able [3:23] to leverage this equipment modularity, so building the equipment in Albuquerque, and then we're also leveraging the equipment in the United States. [3:25] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, Precast construction, concrete elements [3:31] come here, and then they get installed very quickly. [3:33] PAUL SOLMAN, Like Legos. [3:34] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, Like Legos. [3:35] That's exactly right. [3:36] PAUL SOLMAN, The work they're doing now is on a demo without nuclear fuel, next, a demo [3:42] with nuclear fuel, getting more of the kinks out, after that, the real thing. [3:46] MIKE LAUFER, CEO, Hermes Demonstration Reactor, USA, Build the same thing over and [3:48] over again, so that the construction process gets faster, and that's really how we're going [3:52] to drive down the overall cost for nuclear power. [3:55] PAUL SOLMAN, One true believer, Google, which has signed on to purchase power from [3:59] Kairos beginning in 2030. [4:00] LUCIA TIAN, We're starting with 50 megawatts and then extending to a total [4:05] of 500 megawatts by 2035. [4:07] PAUL SOLMAN, Google's Lucia Tian says the company is investing in all kinds of [4:12] carbon-free energy to fuel its data centers and meet its net zero emissions target by [4:18] 2030. [4:19] LUCIA TIAN, We know that as electricity demand grows, we're going to need to grow [4:24] nuclear power. [4:25] LUCIA TIAN, We're going to need to grow nuclear power alongside with it. [4:26] The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. [4:28] You need sources like nuclear that provide that steady flow of electrons that fills the [4:33] gaps. [4:34] PAUL SOLMAN, Kairos will send power to the federally owned Tennessee Valley [4:38] Authority's grid. [4:39] MATT RASMUSEN, Kairos will send power to the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority's [4:40] grid. [4:41] MATT RASMUSEN, Kairos will send power to the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority's [4:42] grid. [4:43] MATT RASMUSEN, Kairos will send power to the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority's [4:44] grid. [4:45] It's so important to have this diversification of a portfolio that one fuel doesn't drive [4:46] everything. [4:47] PAUL SOLMAN, Chief Nuclear Officer Matt Rasmussen says TVA is investing heavily [4:50] in new fission nuclear, like Kairos, and even in nuclear fusion, though that's still [4:55] a long way off. [4:56] So, what you're seeing here is the retired Bull Run fossil plant, but what you see behind [5:02] us is what the future potentially looks like, which is the development of a type one fusion [5:07] energy reactor here at Bull Run. [5:10] This is yesterday. [5:12] That's tomorrow. [5:13] That's correct. [5:14] It's being called the Manhattan Project 2.0. [5:16] PAUL SOLMAN, In the last five years, some $10 billion has been invested in nuclear [5:19] power. [5:21] It's invested in all manner of nuclear development at Oak Ridge. [5:23] MATT RASMUSEN, Kairos Small modular reactor is being built. [5:26] We've got centrifuges coming in that are going to be enriching uranium, a laser process that's [5:32] going to be enriching uranium. [5:34] We've got the Triso-X that's going to be creating fuel for molten-salt reactors. [5:38] PAUL SOLMAN, So, all good, right? [5:41] Well, as usual, not so fast. [5:43] NANCY PELOSI, The nuclear reactors are like rocket science. [5:46] They're difficult. [5:47] They're complex. [5:48] PAUL SOLMAN, And, historically, they have cost billions of dollars. [5:51] PAUL SOLMAN, Says former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Allison McFarland. [5:54] ALLISON MCFARLAND, It will take huge sums to bring these technologies to commercial [6:01] viability. [6:02] The small modular reactor developers are saying, well, we will just build them in a factory. [6:07] But factory production is not necessarily easy. [6:11] Westinghouse tried to build the large reactors that just turned on in Georgia in a factory, [6:18] and they had massive problems. [6:19] PAUL SOLMAN, The nuclear reactor is being built. [6:20] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:21] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:22] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:24] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:25] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:26] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:27] It's going to cost millions of dollars. [6:28] PAUL SOLMAN, Those reactors came in $17 billion over budget and seven years [6:29] late. [6:30] Five minutes before critical mass. [6:31] Critical what? [6:32] PAUL SOLMAN, And, in addition to the costs and technical challenges, there [6:35] are the safety concerns, as lampooned on The Simpsons. [6:42] And new reactors like Hermes also carry risks, radioactive leaks, where to put the waste, [6:48] or so says Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. [6:51] EDWIN LYMAN, Every design that I have looked at has potential safety and security [6:56] vulnerabilities which are not being addressed to the extent that they need to be. [7:00] PAUL SOLMAN, Lyman thinks regulators are going too fast in approving new projects. [7:04] EDWIN LYMAN, The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been under tremendous pressure [7:08] from the nuclear industry and from Congress to accelerate licensing of new and novel types [7:15] of reactors. [7:16] And the problem is that, with new reactors, they introduce new safety concerns. [7:21] PAUL SOLMAN, The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that they try to address these [7:23] concerns and new technical issues. [7:24] And sometimes, you can't resolve them in a short period of time. [7:26] PAUL SOLMAN, Kairos' Laufer, however, insists safety is a central focus of his. [7:31] KAIROS LAUFER, For us, that means making sure that these fuel pebbles remain [7:36] where they're supposed to be, and they're surrounded by the proper shielding to protect [7:39] the plant workers and also to protect the public as well. [7:42] PAUL SOLMAN, And the TVA's Rasmussen believes nuclear power is safer than ever. [7:46] RASMUSSEN, One of the safest energies out there. [7:48] We have one of the lowest industrial accident rates of any industry. [7:50] PAUL SOLMAN, And the TVA's Rasmussen believes that nuclear power is safer than ever. [7:51] industry in the world. [7:52] PAUL SOLMAN. [7:53] Forty percent of TVA power, he says, already comes from nuclear, in a part of the country [7:58] that's unafraid of it. [7:59] DONALD TRUMP. [8:00] Tell me what city you have that would not allow a Target store to come in, would not [8:06] listen to the idea of having a racetrack built, but are happy to have nuclear reactors in [8:12] their city. [8:14] PAUL SOLMAN. [8:15] And outside investors are pouring billions into it, but McFarland isn't buying it. [8:20] So you yourself, assuming you had this kind of money, wouldn't invest in these things? [8:25] LINCO SAY. [8:28] No, absolutely not. [8:30] PAUL SOLMAN. [8:31] Because? [8:32] LINCO SAY. [8:34] I don't think they're going to be successful. [8:35] PAUL SOLMAN. [8:36] Mike Laufer, however, plans to prove her wrong, starting small, building bit by bit. [8:39] MIKE LAUFER. [8:41] So, Linko Say, we're going to deliver these power plants at this cost and at the schedule. [8:45] People will be able to believe that we can actually do it. [8:47] PAUL SOLMAN. [8:48] So, after all that, would you invest? [8:50] For the PBS NewsHour, Paul Solman in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. [8:53] PAUL SOLMAN. [9:06] The journalism you trust. [9:07] Support PBS News. [9:10] Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.