Reactor Technology Options Study for Near-Term Deployment of GNEP Grid-Appropriate Reactors

Abstract

World energy demand is projected to significantly increase over the coming decades. The International Energy Agency projects that electricity demand will increase 50% by 2015 and double by 2030, with most of the increase coming in developing countries as they experience double-digit rates of economic growth and seek to improve their standards of living. Energy is the necessary driver for human development, and the demand for energy in these countries will be met using whatever production technologies are available. Recognizing this inevitable energy demand and its implications for the United States, the U.S. National Security Strategy has proposed the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) to work with other nations to develop and deploy advanced nuclear recycling and reactor technologies. This initiative will help provide reliable, emission-free energy with less of the waste burden of older technologies and without making available separated plutonium that could be used by rogue states or terrorists for nuclear weapons. These new technologies will make possible a dramatic expansion of safe, clean nuclear energy to help meet the growing global energy demand. In other words, GNEP seeks to create an international regime to support large-scale growth in the worldwide use of nuclear energy without increasing themore » risk of nuclear weapon proliferation. This global expansion of nuclear power is strategically important to the United States for several reasons, including the following: (1) National security, by reducing the competition and potential for conflict over increasingly scarce fossil energy resources; (2) Economic security, by helping maintain stable prices for nonrenewable resources such as oil, gas, and coal; (3) Environmental security, by replacing or off-setting large-scale burning of greenhouse gas-emitting fuels for electricity production; and (4) Regaining technical leadership, through deployment of innovative U.S. technology-based reactors. Fully meeting the GNEP vision may require the deployment of thousands of reactors during the next century in dozens of countries, many of which are in the developing world where nuclear energy is not used currently. Such a large-scale deployment will have significant implications related to both fuel supply and spent fuel/waste management, both domestically and worldwide. Consequently, GNEP must address the development and demonstration of proliferation-resistant technologies to ensure both a safe and sustainable nuclear fuel cycle, and reactor designs that are appropriate for the range of needs across the global community. The focus of this report is the latter need, that is, the development and demonstration of proliferation-resistant reactors that are well matched to the needs and capabilities of developing countries.« less