US Nuclear Announcement Neglects Safety and Financial Concerns

WASHINGTON-At COP29 today in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Biden administration rolled out a "framework for action" to triple nuclear power capacity in the United States by 2050 by adding 200 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear generation through restarting shutdown reactors, uprating the power of operating reactors and building new reactors. The framework, which could cost $1 trillion or more over 25 years, contains no new financing mechanisms to address the economic barriers posed by the high cost of new nuclear reactors and proposes a U.S. deployment rate of 15 GW per year starting in 2040: three times the rate of new nuclear capacity connected to the grid worldwide in 2023.

Below is a statement by Dr. Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

"Although the Biden-Harris framework gives lip service to the importance of nuclear power safety and security, it provides zero guidance on how such a vast increase in nuclear power capacity in the United States can take place without greatly increasing the danger to public health and the environment.

"The framework's discussion of nuclear safety is cursory and misleading. For example, it refers to the importance of 'defense-in-depth'-the multiple barriers for preventing the release of deadly radiation that are required for the current generation of nuclear plants-yet it doesn't acknowledge that reactor developers are seeking to slash capital and operating costs by stripping away those additional layers.

"The framework also endorses the development of new reactors that require large quantities of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), and the supply chain needed to produce and process HALEU, without acknowledging the increased nuclear proliferation and security risks posed by this material, which is likely directly usable in nuclear weapons.

"Without seriously addressing these and other safety and security risks, the framework's promise to 'safely and responsibly' expand U.S. nuclear energy is nothing but false advertising."

Dr. Lyman and colleagues published an article in Science earlier this year arguing that quantities of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) on the order of 1 metric ton, and potentially much less, could be used to make crude nuclear weapons.

If you would like to get in contact with Dr. Lyman or any other expert at UCS, please contact UCS Communications Officer Daela Taeoalii-Tipton.