Introduction
The updated Advanced Reactor Roadmap is intended to support the successful commercialization of advanced reactors and achieve the outcomes necessary to enable successful large-scale deployment. The term advanced reactors is defined as a new generation of nuclear technologies designed to offer improved safety, efficiency, and flexibility compared to traditional reactors, with capabilities such as high-temperature operation, modular construction, and enhanced fuel utilization.
This roadmap is focused on supporting six primary audiences:
For potential owner/operators of advanced reactors - To understand how the nuclear industry plans to deliver on owner/operator (e.g., owners and energy offtakers) needs and have more confidence when making decisions to pursue advanced reactors.
For policymakers and regulators – To understand the impacts of federal, state/provincial/territorial, and local policies and the policies necessary to enable deployment of advanced reactors for reliable, affordable, and clean nuclear energy.
For financial institutions – To understand how advanced reactors fit in the bigger picture to deliver on society’s decarbonization efforts and have more confidence in the value of and return on those investments.
For public stakeholders including local communities – To understand the benefits and key attributes of advanced reactors and to have confidence that deployment and utilization of advanced reactors are done in a way that is protective of the public and the environment.
For Indigenous Nations and Communities – To understand the benefits and key attributes of advanced reactors and share information on concerns related to impacts on their communities such that we can build partnerships in the pursuit of benefits to communities.
For industry stakeholders – To understand the integrated path forward to create and commercialize advanced reactors that deliver value to the market, to understand the opportunities and needs for developing and expanding capability and expertise, and to know when those capabilities will be in demand.
This Advanced Reactor Roadmap is focused on deployment efforts in the United States and Canada, with the recognition that these efforts will also support deployment of advanced reactors around the globe.
The roadmap includes three sections to:
Describe the approach that the industry is taking to drive the value of advanced reactors to fulfill critical market needs.
Discuss the strategic conditions that would further accelerate advanced reactor deployment.
Identify key issues that the industry must address to deliver advanced reactors into the market.
Driving Value to Meet the Market Need
The industry is taking actions to ensure that nuclear energy can meet market needs for clean, reliable, affordable technology, such as continuing to operate existing reactors for 80 years or more and commercializing a new set of nuclear energy technologies.
The continued operation of existing nuclear energy facilities, which account for roughly 20% of today’s power generation in the United States and approximately 15% in Canada, is essential not only for the plants’ significant benefits to the energy system but also because using existing plants mitigates the overwhelming challenges involved in meeting the increasing energy demand.
The industry’s approach to driving the value of advanced reactors to fulfill critical market needs is as follows:
PROVIDE DESIRED VALUE
Develop advanced reactors that safely deliver the cost-effective features and benefits that the market needs. Most significantly, the market needs firm-clean sources (also known as baseload) that are available 24/7, 365 days a year and can withstand and/or quickly recover from disruptive events such as extreme weather. This provides a foundation of reliable, resilient, and dispatchable power that is essential to a functional electricity grid and heat users. Furthermore, advanced reactors will ultimately enable greater deployment of renewable energy sources and storage.
Advanced reactors must be cost-effective. Grid planners’ reliance on the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), however, can underestimate the real-world expenses and value of different technologies. The recent Clean Air Task Force report points to a comprehensive system-level cost and value analysis that accurately captures total system costs, including generation, storage, transmission, and distribution as well as resource reliability, dispatchability, and emissions attributes.
PORTFOLIO OF PRODUCTS
Develop a portfolio of products to meet a diverse set of market and customer needs. The existing nuclear energy facilities are essentially one type of product in the market—a large energy facility most suitable to powering a large electrical grid. There will still be value in these products in the future, but the scale and diversity that the market needs to power the energy sector requires a diverse set of advanced reactor technologies with varying capabilities. There will be a need for large, medium, small, and very small (also called micro) nuclear energy facilities to meet varying sizes of the grid and customer demand. Non-electric markets, such as transportation and industrial heat, will need a wide range of temperatures and sizes. In many cases, the market will need technologies to produce both electricity and heat. Because no one design can meet all of the market need, a portfolio of products is essential.
Historically, nuclear energy was used in large, baseload electric generating stations. However, demand for advanced reactors is expected to expand significantly and to include a diversity of attributes and uses, including:
- Application: Electricity generation, industrial heat, hydrogen production, steam, and other potential energy needs
- Size: Microreactors, SMRs, and large-scale reactors
- Utilization: Always on, load/demand following, or intermittent
- Siting: Fixed or mobile (microreactor)
- Pimary Coolant: Light water, heavy water, gas-cooled, liquid sodium cooled, lead-cooled, molten salt, and potentially others
- Energy Products: Electricity, steam, heat, hydrogen
TIMELINESS
Successfully commercialize advanced nuclear technologies through early deployments, thereby building the foundation for expanding to large- scale deployment before the mid-2030s. The market demand for energy is urgent. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates global electricity demand will increase by approximately 4% through 2027. In North America, specifically, energy demand is expected to continue to grow at 2% per year in the near term, leading to a cumulative 78% increase by 2050. Furthermore, U.S. load growth forecasts have been revised upward time and time again.
The approach to drive value to meet market demand informs the discussion on conditions that would further enable advanced reactors to meet the market needs. Planned actions to deliver advanced reactors into the market are identified in the following sections.
Successful commercialization of advanced reactors that enable the United States and Canada to meet their energy, climate, environmental, economic, and national security goals is enhanced through collaborative efforts by the industry and external stakeholders.