Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, yesterday warned that nuclear energy has to be part of the energy shift away from fossil fuels. However, while the UN agency is increasing its forecasts for nuclear energy production, Grossi also said this was contingent on “a better investment playing field.”
With A+ timing, NuScale—one of the nuclear industry’s great hopes—yesterday admitted defeat in its flagship small modular reactor (SMR) installation, the Carbon Free Power Project, which it just spent a decade developing in Utah. The reasons? Rising costs ($59 per megawatt hour turned into $89 over the last couple years, according to Bloomberg) and utilities’ unwillingness to commit to buying the project’s output. Here’s NuScale CEO John Hopkins, delivering the kind of statement you never want to deliver: “Once you’re on a dead horse, you dismount quickly. That’s where we are here.”
