Increased capacity for nuclear energy production could be key to helping the United States and Canada meet national energy, economic, climate, environmental, and security goals.
There is a growing consensus that both existing and advanced nuclear could play important roles in the decarbonization of the electricity grid and other parts of the U.S. and Canadian economies. Decarbonization of the electricity, transportation, and industrial heating sectors could come from large amounts of firm, carbon-free energy produced through nuclear technology. Recent studies, like those by EPRI, DOE, and Vibrant Clean Energy, conclude that there is a large market opportunity for cost-competitive firm, clean energy sources, including nuclear energy. The nuclear energy industry is taking action to enable nuclear energy to meet the market demand through the continued operation of existing reactors and the commercialization of advanced reactors, which could be called upon to provide 60 to 400 GW of generating capacity as a carbon-free option by 2050. The purpose of this Advanced Reactor Roadmap is to outline the critical strategies and support actions necessary for the successful large-scale deployment of advanced reactors. This will be a living document that evolves and refocuses strategies and actions as the future unfolds. The Advanced Reactor Roadmap’s intended audiences are potential customers (owners and energy off-takers), policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, public stakeholders, and industry stakeholders. The roadmap, developed through a multistakeholder process, including experts from advanced reactor developers, suppliers, utilities, researchers, and industry associations, describes an achievable path to facilitate the successful commercialization of advanced reactors, spur and support the necessary actions, and enable deployment at the levels needed. The approach that the industry is taking to enable the value of advanced reactors to fulfill critical market needs is focused on three key things:
Commercializing advanced reactor technologies that deliver the desired value
Establishing a portfolio of advanced reactor technologies to meet a diverse set of market and customer needs
Ensuring that the commercialization of these technologies is both cost-effective and on track to meet the milestones for decarbonization on time
The approach relies on disruptive innovations that develop advanced reactors with benefits that deliver value to the market, including easing deployment challenges, accelerating deployments, and increasing costcompetitiveness, all while increasing safety and maintaining reliability. This requires the industry to change how it designs, deploys, and operates advanced reactors. The approach is framed to allow a realistic, phased, and riskmanaged approach to deploying advanced nuclear technology.
“The approach is framed to allow a realistic, phased, and risk-managed approach to deploying advanced nuclear technology.“
This approach of establishing, advancing, and expanding to scale (EAE) (see Figure 1) is the basis for pursuing industry priorities by setting up early wins, derisking for owners, and creating fast followers. Finally, the active involvement of industry leaders has been a key driver for multistakeholder collaboration in developing this roadmap. Continued industry leadership is essential to execute and drive the strategy, promote collaboration and coordination, and ensure that actions are being completed on the roadmap, which need to be taken now to ensure that the 2050 vision can be achieved. Industry leadership must articulate a vision that builds confidence, attracts capital and investment, inspires the industry to overcome the inevitable challenges, brings technology to the market, and achieves the needed deployments. The 2050 goal is possible only if we start now.
The approach to drive value to meet market demand informs the actions needed to create success in advanced reactor commercialization. These actions are divided into two areas: 1) conditions that would further enable advanced reactors to meet market needs (called enablers) and 2) the actions that the industry plans to take to deliver advanced reactors into the market.
ENABLERS
Enablers are the conditions related to policy, regulatory, and public acceptance surrounding the commercialization of advanced reactors and are key opportunities for stakeholders and the industry to enable and enhance the deployment of advanced reactors.
There are seven enablers, with a total of 15 Key Opportunities
First Mover Success
Fast Followers
Regulatory Efficiency
Siting Availability and Permitting
Indigenous and Public Engagement
Supply Chain Ramp-Up
Supply Chain Ramp-Up
ACTIONS
Actions are those the industry plans to take to deliver value in the deployment of advanced reactors. The industry actions focus on what the industry can control in delivering a timely portfolio of products with value that the market desires.
There are a total of 46 actions organized into 13 strategic elements, which are grouped into the following three action pillars
Regulatory Efficiency
Technology Readiness
Project Execution
These actions are further prioritized to identify the high-priority actions that make the greatest contribution to delivering value to the market and other actions that could help further improve success. Successful decarbonization efforts will depend on a host of actions, across many industries and end uses. Nuclear is expected to play a strong role in achieving this success. This roadmap is intended to be a valuable, informative asset in enabling that outcome.
