Original subtitles

[narrator] Join us on Tomorrow's World Today

as we journey through the worlds of inspiration,

creation, innovation and production

to find the ideas and technologies

that are shaping our future.

In this four-part exploration,

we visit the world of innovation

to discover how nuclear energy

can help us achieve the 2050 goal

of a zero carbon footprint.

From Inventionland World headquarters,

here's your host, George Davison.

Hey, Greg.

I'd like to learn more about nuclear technology.

You know, from its history

to how it may play a role in creating a zero carbon footprint.

Well, George you know there are a lot of myths

and misconceptions out there around nuclear energy.

There are, and I'd like you to investigate that, too.

Also, they've invented small modular reactors

and micro reactors

that'll be providing energy to remote places

which is just fascinating to me.

And they can provide power when there are major outages.

And I just read about a project

to help build nuclear powerplants on the moon.

Now, that's Tomorrow's World.

That's why I'd like you to go and investigate nuclear energy.

You're gonna go out and talk with top scientists, engineers and officials.

Are you ready to take a deep dive into nuclear energy?

Well, I've already done some background research

and I'm ready to hear from the experts themselves.

[George] That's great.

Your first stop is in Washington DC.

I'm on my way there, George.

[Greg] Here I am in Washington DC outside the US Capitol

where we're going to learn how nuclear energy

is going to help us to achieve our goal

of a zero carbon footprint by 2050.

Now, reducing carbon emissions will obviously make for better air quality.

But it will also help to slow down climate change,

which is responsible for rising sea levels,

droughts, even wildfires.

Now, we are going to meet with Spencer Nelson.

He's the senior research director a ClearPath.

We're gonna learn from him exactly how much energy the world needs

and how the production of that energy

is fueling the current climate change.

[Greg] Hey, you must be Spencer.

- Oh, hey! Great to meet you. - Great to meet you too!

- Thanks for taking the time with us today. - No problem.

So, we're gonna give in with a really big question

that probably has a really big answer.

Exactly how much energy does the world need and use today?

Well Greg, it's a significant amount.

Right now we use approximately 15 billion tons of oil equivalent.

Spread out across electricity, heating, transportation,

everything and it's the amount of energy that we need to have a modern society.

Wow! I... Now, speaking of that, I guess if you look

at the beginnings of the industrial revolution

through the last 150 years or so,

most researchers would agree that human activity

has really contributed to the increase in greenhouse gases.

That's clearly something we're not going to be able to change overnight.

What can we do to help things out?

Well, there's a lot of things that we can add.

Additional clean energy sources,

we can look at energy efficiency.

We can also even capture carbon emissions that are coming out of powerplants.

And actually reuse that to help us out. That's awesome.

Now, one of the things we've been hearing about

that's sort of a problem now

but it's certainly gonna be a problem in the future

is what's called "Climate migration."

And I've heard statistics that have shown

that potentially a 143 million people could be displaced

worldwide due to climate change.

Yeah, it's absolutely an issue that's gonna have to be managed.

I think that number is kind of a worst case scenario

if we don't reduce our emissions.

But, there's a lot that we can do to choose cleaner sources,

to capture emissions from powerplants

and choose energy efficiency that could avoid that outcome.

So, Spencer...

given some of the statistics that you gave me earlier,

would seem as though there's plenty of energy in the world

but there are still lots of people who go without.

Absolutely.

There's still 10% of world that doesn't have access to electricity.

And in addition to that,

there are a couple billion who have limited energy access

where they have blackouts or only a few hours a day.

And it's really important that we give them abundant, reliable energy

- that's cleaner and affordable. - Right.

Now, what are some of the ways that we can help out with that?

One important way is nuclear energy.

Doesn't use a lot of land, it produces a lot of energy

and most importantly, it's zero-emission.

And that's one the keys here, is that zero carbon footprint.

All right, Spencer, thank you very much.

This is a good way for me to get over to...

Dr. Katy Huff over at Department of Energy.

Thank you.

We're on a mission to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050.

One surefire to help with that is nuclear energy.

I'm at the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy,

where I'm gonna meet Dr. Katy Huff.

She's the acting assistant secretary

and principal deputy assistant secretary

to the Office of Nuclear Energy.

- Dr. Huff. - Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

So, we're learning that nuclear energy is going to be a key component

in us reaching a net zero carbon future.

- Tell me about that. - Absolutely.

Nuclear energy provides the majority of the clean electricity

in the Unites States

and as we look towards decarbonizing the rest of it,

carbon emitting sources and fossil fuels,

nuclear energy is gonna play an essential role in that transition,

both, existing reactors and advanced reactors.

Okay now, I know that the DOE is involved in funding

some research that's moving all of that forward. Tell me about that.

The DOE is funding advanced reactor research

as well as existing reactor research around

operations and maintenance improvements, accident tolerant fuels

and markets beyond electricity,

including a hydrogen economy and applications of heat

for industrial processing and advanced fuels.

All right, great. Well, can't wait to learn more.

So, Dr. Huff...

how important is nuclear energy going to be to tomorrow's world?

Oh, it's gonna be absolutely essential.

As we attempt to decarbonize the globe,

which is gonna be absolutely necessary to fight climate change,

there are gonna be a lot of applications

for nuclear power in that decarbonization.

Including, for example, desalination, where we remove the salt from seawater.

And heat from nuclear energy

is one of the only ways we can do that without emitting carbon.

So, a lot of people feel that with those alternate sources of energy,

wind, solar and water, that we don't need nuclear power.

But that's really not true.

[Dr. Huff] No, that's right.

Renewables, as they exist today,

are quiet variable with the weather.

For example, solar energy is

working when the sun is risen.

But that's not necessarily when people need power.

And so, to modulate the difference

between when energy is produced and when it's needed,

you need a lot of battery storage

or you need to back up that grid with

fossil energy or nuclear energy.

We want to get away from fossils

and grid scale battery storage

really isn't at the scale we need to back up

all of the renewable expansions we're gonna need.

So, nuclear is a great option to back up those renewables.

So, it seems as though all of these alternate sources of energy

need to work together in order to get us to the future we want.

Yes, absolutely.

And with the variability of both existing and advanced reactors,

I believe that renewable energy will work very nicely

with nuclear energy backing it up.

That's great. Well, that's exactly what I'm off to Idaho Falls to learn about.

So, thank you very much.

[Greg] I made it to Idaho Falls.

I'm gonna meet with Emma Redfoot.

She's a reactor engineer with the advanced fission company, Oklo.

And we're gonna talk about how

nuclear power compliments alternate forms of energy

like hydro.

- Hi, Emma. - Hi, Greg.

- Great to meet you. - Nice to meet you as well.

Well, we're out here in the middle of this wind farm

because I want to know more about how we take

solar, hydro and wind along with nuclear energy

and then put that together in a marriage

that'll give us the power that we need moving forward.

[Emma] That's a great question.

It's something I questioned a lot when I was an environmental studies major.

What I learned is that we need all of these clean energy sources

if we're gonna deal with energy poverty

while also tackling climate change.

Let's go to Idaho National Lab so I can show you the research.

Excellent.

[Greg] I'm in Idaho Falls at the Idaho National Laboratory.

I'm here to meet up, again, with Emma Redfoot

and get an answer to the question a lot of people have been asking,

"Why do we need advanced nuclear reactors?"

- Hi, Emma. - Hi, it's good to see you, Greg.

[Greg] Advanced nuclear reactors.

This is a term that we hear bandied about in a lot of different ways.

Tell me exactly what that means.

Yeah, that's a very confusing term.

It's also one of my favorite topics, so thanks for asking.

"Advanced Nuclear Reactors" generally refers to

reactors that don't use water in their primary flow system.

So, that means there's a lot of different advanced reactor designs out there.

There's a lot of different fuel types,

there's a lot of different liquids that you have flowing through them.

Some don't even use liquids, they use, you know, solid systems.

What's great about that is all those different reactor designs

can then be used where they compliment

the demands of the community the most.

And so, some places want to produce hydrogen

which means they'll need really high temperatures.

So, things like high temperature gas reactors,

and molten salt reactors are great.

Consuming nuclear waste as fuel

is something that advanced reactors can do.

So, sodium fast reactors will be great

for trying to reduce your waste burden.

A lot of these can also operate flexibly.

I'm gonna talk about two different general categories

of modern reactor design right now.

Sounds great.

Small modular reactors and...

micro reactors.

So, small modular reactors is one term you hear a lot of the time.

Generally, "small modular reactors"

refers to anything that's under 300 megawatts electric.

And they often do use water as their... in their primary system.

So, this is the new scale small modular reactor

and there's two things that really excite me about these.

They are able to be factory fabricated.

And they are able to be more flexible

to what their customer needs are.

So, the factory fabrication allows for rapid deployment,

high quality standards

and for us to use all of the insides that

nuclear can gain from so many industries out there

that have scaled production using good industrial process practices.

Right.

The flexibility aspect, so in Idaho for example,

we're seeing the population grow really quickly.

But, right now we might only need three reactors

while we might need 12 in, say, a decade.

But you can add those modules at a later date as they become necessary.

The other category that I'm gonna talk to you about is micro reactors.

So, micro reactors are generally under 20 megawatts.

So, they're really, really little.

We have micro reactors all over this country as research and test reactors.

- Okay. - Micro reactors are great for being able to deploy

in remote communities,

than to just to meet the local community's needs.

So, this is all about

putting this in a community to make their lives better.

And this is why I became a nuclear engineer.

It was really to address local communities' challenges.

Well, that's amazing but is it really a problem of that magnitude?

I mean, 300 million people in India alone

don't have reliable access to electricity.

And what that means is that they don't have as great of access to...

healthcare, to education.

Women's rights improves as more energy consumption.

So, what we're dealing within the world now,

is we're dealing with climate change, where we have to replace

all of these fossil fuels

as well as needing to meet the demands of much of the world

in order for them to live a higher quality of life

and be able to choose what they want to do with their lives.

The micro reactors are gonna be able to be placed

in these areas where they are so desperately needed.

Yes, that's why I'm so excited about factory fabrication

and being able to deploy quickly.

It's because we can put a lot of these reactors out there

due to faster manufacturing processes.

So what's some of the researches going on right now in these areas?

Are there some things here you can show me?

Yeah, absolutely.

The research that's been going on

for decades is helping to make these advanced reactors a reality

so that we can deploy them quickly. Let me show you.

So, the research that's going on here,

tell me exactly where you see

nuclear energy going as we move forward?

I mean, we've been talking about advanced reactors this whole time.

And the reason that I...

think advanced reactors can be deployed quickly,

all over the world is because we know so much about them.

We know so much about them

because of research that's been happening for decades.

Materials research is one of the most important areas.

Right, and I know the one of the other aspects that's moving things forward

is that the national labs are now partnering

with private companies as well.

And that's a boon for everybody.

Yeah, the Oklo Aurora is one of the best examples.

The first commercial nuclear power plant

that's going to be deployed at National Idaho Lab.

And not only is it going to be deployed here,

but it also is going to be taking

what is now considered nuclear waste from EBR-II.

And using that as fuel for this new reactor.

So, being able to use nuclear waste

as fuel is a game changer across the entire board.

Yeah, not only does it allow

for us to consume this thing that's viewed

as a major burden and makes people uncomfortable,

but it also means that we don't have to mine.

- [chuckles] - Right.

And so, environmental benefits on both sides.

Wow and then that means that even the amount of waste

that we're going to be dealing with is gonna be so much smaller.

And all of this contributes to a smaller carbon footprint.

All right. Well, Emma thank you very much, this has been great.

- Thank you so much. - Really appreciate it.

And I can't wait to see what happens as we move forward.

Okay.

Idaho National Laboratory has the history

as being the first place that nuclear electricity was produced.

Well over half of all of the advanced nuclear reactors

that were developed in the world today started here at Idaho.

We're now on the cusp of launching

the next generation of advanced reactors.

The new light water reactors,

the new high temperature gas-cooled reactors,

fast reactors, all of those reactors

are looking to Idaho to help them get into the commercial world.

Nuclear is on the cusp of...

seeing these new technologies

succeed, finally, because of the attributes of nuclear power.

Being a clean energy source,

being a secure energy source,

and finally taking technologies that Idaho developed

back in the 60's and 70's,

we're finally seeing the industries,

the oil and gas companies, the fossil fuels,

integrating with renewable energy sources.

So, the job of the Idaho National Laboratory today

is to deploy the technologies that we've been working on for decades.

The reactor after next.

Not to just study it anymore,

we wanna get those technologies deployed into the marketplace,

producing clean energy.

Not just electricity,

but now, we're aspiring to produce hydrogen,

desalination, district heating.

All these applications that provide clean energy,

not only in electricity market, but in transportation

and industrial processes.

These are things we've been studying for decades

and now is the time that the reactor companies

like USNC and others have found investors.

And there's really an appetite to invest in clean energy like nuclear.

I think it's very clear that the time is now to deploy these technologies

and it's time for the US to take leadership.

That's why the Idaho National Laboratory

and other national laboratories are supporting

companies like USNC and the other awardees

of the Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

Because we're, you know, we led the deployment

of the light water reactor technology.

We developed the advanced reactors.

Other countries are developing these technologies based on what we've done.

It's time for us to make that leap

and innovate and develop the more advanced reactors

for the next generation of clean energy.

In this episode,

we've learned a lot of basic information about nuclear energy.

And how it can help us to achieve our goals of a net zero carbon footprint by 2050.

Now as we become more concerned with climate change,

and become more technologically advanced,

we really need to start thinking about where our power comes from.

Now, wind, solar and hydro

are all going to be vital parts of the energy mix moving forward.

But none of these is a 24-hour a day,

seven-day a week, 365-day a year power source.

This is where nuclear energy really comes into play.

We've also learned about energy poverty

and how certain areas of the world

either have very limited access,

or no access to even basic electricity.

This is where modular nuclear reactors

can be a real solution to these situations.

So please, join us for our next episode

as we continue to explore the innovations happening with this amazing technology.

For Tomorrow's World Today, I'm Greg Constantino.