Will New Technology and Climate Change Save Nuclear Power?

Daniel Poneman, former U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary and current CEO of Centrus Energy, explores resurgent interest in nuclear power a decade after Fukushima.
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Growing concern over energy security and climate change has revived interest in nuclear power in some of the world’s most energy-intensive economies. In Japan, nuclear generators that closed following the 2011 Fukushima disaster are reopening, while Germany has extended the operating life of the country’s remaining nuclear facilities. And in the United States recent legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act, earmarks billions of dollars to support economically struggling nuclear power plants and the development of next-generation nuclear technology.

Yet the future of nuclear energy remains far from certain as challenges around cost, complexity, and spent fuel disposal persist.

Daniel Poneman, chief executive of nuclear fuel supplier Centrus Energy and former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, discusses the political and market dynamics underpinning the nuclear industry’s resurgence in developed economies. He also examines the potential for small modular reactor technology to deliver economic, and carbon free, electricity in the future.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

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