Today the NuScale Power executive team officially delivered a 12,000-page application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Comission to license the NuScale small modular reactor power plant design. Nuclear engineers are really excited because this is the first reactor of its kind to undergo the licensing process, bringing it a huge step closer to commercialization, but why should you be excited?

Another clean energy option
The global demand for energy is growing, and we need more clean energy options to reduce pollution, impact on the environment, and mitigate climate change. NuScale's reactors and power plant are designed to be scalable and flexible to meet a variety of energy needs, including generting carbon-free electricity, load-following with renewables, desalinating water, supplying microgrids, and more. NuScale's goal is also to make it economic by driving down the cost and construction time with modularity and assembly-line fabrication. This is a game-changer for the energy industry.

A successful public-private partnership
In a time when it seems that everything coming out of the government is negative...it's nice to hear about a project that's gone well. NuScale recieved investment from the US Department of Energy, matched by Fluor Corporation, to develop this design and submit it to the regulator for review. Therefore this milestone shows that public-private partnerships work and sharing the risk between the government and private sector allows for large innovative projects like this to succeed.

Paving the way for more advanced nuclear
Advanced nuclear reactors are safer, can recycle nuclear waste as fuel, use different fuels like thorium, and even be made small enough for household use. NuScale is the first design of this new era of advanced nuclear to go through the licensing process, which will pave the way for even more innovative reactors to come to market and create a truely sustainble clean energy system alongside renewables.


Full disclosure, I work for NuScale so of course I'm excited! Having only been with the company for a few months, I've already been very impressed by the level of dedication and enthusiam by the team to design an energy source that has the potential to change the world. There is still a lot more work to be done but this milestone represents a huge step forward.

Last year I wrote about how 2016 could be the year for nuclear energy, in terms of finally being accepted as a clean energy. While we've crossed some important hurdles and made even more progress in 2016, there is still a lot of work to do.

These resolutions are for environmentalists, ecomodernists, climate change denialists, futurists, and whatever other -ist you might be. The fact is that the modern world relies on energy - and we need to be smarter about it.

1. Work together
All of the "ists" mentioned above want the same thing, to prosper as a society now and in the future.  We have many different ideas on how to do this, and we all have an agenda that we want to further. We should each keep working on our projects, innovations, and policies, but we need to be open to the ideas of others. Solutions to abundant, economic, and sustainable energy will involved renewables, and nuclear, and yes, even fossil fuels - not to mention anything else we come up with in the meantime: hydrogen fuel, mass energy storage, fusion, etc. Fighting against each other is not helping us reach our goals. The best solutions to big problems come from people working together, so let's put that into practice.

2. Take Responsibility
There are many reasons why we shouldn't take our natural resources for granted. They will not last forever and we may destroy our environment. I believe that we can prosper as a society without compromising our planet. But governments, companies, and consumers need to take responsibility for taking progressive action. Right now, we penalize those that abuse the environment. But when people can take responsibility for a common cause, as many companies and consumers are already doing, then we come up with better and more economic solutions. Instead of penalizing, let's reward those that are taking responsibility and leadership to conserve our natural environment.

3. Invest in Innovation
From fire to coal to gas, fossil fuels have allowed us to grow and prosper and modern society is still very much dependent on them. But it's time to upgrade the energy system to technologies that are more advanced and abundant. Science fiction stories always have some sort of "unlimited" energy source. Well, we have the technology to this; it doesn't have to be fiction. We were able to develop nuclear weapons in a matter of months (a bad thing but an amazing story nonetheless) and get a man on the moon - before computers or the ability to bring masses of global minds together. With some drive and commitment, the impossible becomes possible. And hopefully it doesn't take a war or an energy crisis to motivate us to innovate.

Let's make 2017 about moving past our differences, using our resources responsibly and investing in the future of energy. This way, we can all win.
 
Also, don't forget to vote for my video in the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week blogging contest! To vote, just rate it using the stars on the bottom of the post.