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DOE’S HUFF ON NUCLEAR FUEL SUPPLY: The U.S. is acting with the same initiative on nuclear fuel as the Europeans are with respect to natural gas: develop alternatives to Russian supplies, and do it fast.
The Biden administration is planning a future for the U.S. nuclear fleet sans Russian uranium, now that the West is cutting ties with Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
The power sector could voluntarily stop doing business with Russian uranium providers, as has happened in other industries, or Congress could ban imports as it did with Russian fossil fuels. Legislation currently before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would ban Russian uranium imports.
Either way, reliance on uranium sourced from Russia poses special energy security and national security risks, said Assistant Secretary of Energy Kathryn Huff, who heads up the Office of Nuclear Energy at the department. Those should be addressed by revamping domestic enrichment services, she told Jeremy.
“[Russia] is no longer a trustworthy source of our fuel, and we need to find alternatives here and build up that supply chain,” said Huff, a nuclear engineering PhD and former university professor whom the Senate confirmed in an 80-11 vote on May 5.
Fixing what’s broken: The United States used to maintain significant uranium supply capabilities, from mining to conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication.
That supply chain is “broken” now, Huff said, pointing to the fact that the U.S. has a single enrichment supplier that is unable to cover fuel needs alone — and the fact that Russia provides some 20% of the existing reactor fleet’s low enriched uranium.
“We have the largest nuclear fleet in the world, and we currently do not have the capability to provide fuel for all of our reactors,” she said.
Right now, there isn’t really anywhere else to turn in the case of a ban on Russian uranium.
“Worldwide, there’s not enough capacity to replace that gap from trusted sources,” Huff said. “So, it’s our responsibility to encourage and incentivize that enrichment and conversion capability here in the U.S. so that we can return to a time when we have a more fulsome capability.”
What to do about it: Huff has been leading a uranium “tiger team” at the department whose mission is to strategize how to expand the domestic uranium supply chain.
Subject to new funding from Congress, DOE has resolved to offer long-term contracts to buy enriched uranium, giving enrichers and converters reason to stand up new capacity.
“Those purchases would cover a very small fraction of what is actually needed, but that would allow the enrichers to have the confidence that they have some long term contracts in hand,” Huff said.
The need extends to high-assay low-enriched uranium, too. This is the fuel, enriched between 5% and 20%, that the next generation of reactors will use.
For HALEU, the story’s the same: Cutting-edge advanced reactor developers were expecting to source from Russia before the war changed things. Congress just authorized $700 million in new funding for DOE to develop HALEU at home, funding that Huff pledged to roll out “as quickly as humanly possible.”
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JAPAN TO EMBRACE NUCLEAR POWER IN POST-FUKUSHIMA SHIFT: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that his country will restart its idled nuclear power plants and weigh the construction of new nuclear facilities, signaling a potentially major pivot in energy policy following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Kishida attributed the decision largely to the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, as well as soaring energy costs and an ongoing supply crisis.
“As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the global energy situation has drastically changed,” Kishida told reporters today. Japan, which imports 94% of its energy supplies and relies on Russia for 9% of its natural gas, has been especially hard-hit by the price hikes.
Under the new plan, Japan will seek to bring back 17 of the country’s 33 operable reactors by summer 2023, and to extend the life of its existing plants.
No new nuclear facilities have been built in Japan since 2011, when a tsunami and earthquake triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But public opinion has shifted in the years since—and now, many in the country see nuclear power as a means of helping it avoid power shortages and deliver on its pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
FIVE 1,000-YEAR RAIN EVENTS HIT U.S. IN AS MANY WEEKS: In the last five weeks, the U.S. has experienced five instances of 1,000-year rain events, the latest instance of “weather whiplash” that comes as other parts of the U.S., including many Western states, grappled with severe drought conditions that have caused water levels at key rivers and reservoirs to fall to record-lows.
These 1-in-100-year rain events occurred in St. Louis, eastern Kentucky, Illinois, Death Valley in California, and Dallas, which on Monday saw up to 16 inches of rain.
“All five events stemmed from stationary fronts and anomalously-humid air masses,” meteorologist Matthew Cappucci noted. And while a single 1,000-year rain event in a year is not abnormal, five extreme rain events in five weeks is “extreme, and hints at an overarching trend.”
MORE THAN HALF OF EU IN DROUGHT AMID ENERGY CRISIS: Sixty-four percent of Europe is currently under drought warning or alert, the European Union’s Joint Research Center said in a new report yesterday, conditions expected to persist through November and that could severely exacerbate its energy crisis.
Many parts of the continent are experiencing “severe-to-extreme” drought, including Italy, eastern Germany, southeastern and northwestern France, and large parts of the Balkans.
The drought conditions appear to be the worst Europe has seen in at least 500 years.
Drought conditions could also have a “severe” impact on the EU’s energy sector: European leaders have scrambled to secure new gas suppliers and turn to alternative sources of power ahead of a feared Russian gas cutoff this winter– but these, too, could be hit hard by the drought.
Nuclear and coal-powered plants, which many countries have embraced as a short-term energy alternative, rely heavily on water for the cooling process, the report pointed out. And Norway, the EU’s second-largest natural gas supplier behind Russia, is highly dependent on hydroelectric power generation. It warned earlier this month that it would have to curb gas exports to Europe if drought conditions persist.
GREEN GROUPS ASK BIDEN TO BAN NEW NATURAL GAS HEATING: More than 25 health, environmental and consumer protection organizations advocacy groups are asking the Biden administration for a federal ban on natural gas heating appliances in new homes and commercial buildings, citing public health risks linked to fossil fuel-powered heating systems.
“Appliance pollution has significant health impacts, from increasing the rates of asthma to causing thousands of premature deaths each year,” the groups said, pointing in particular to nitrogen oxides, which have been linked to respiratory problems and have been found to worsen preexisting lung conditions.
“Unlike emissions from the energy and transportation sectors, however, emissions from buildings have been largely ignored by federal regulators, a reality that must change if we are to meet our international climate commitments and EPA is to fulfill its statutory obligation to protect public health and welfare,” the groups added. Read the full petition here.
GERMANY AND CANADA SIGN HYDROGEN PACT: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a new hydrogen pact yesterday, clearing the way for Germany to begin importing green hydrogen from Canada as early as 2025.
The effort comes as Europe continues to seek new ways to diversify its energy supply and reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
Green hydrogen, a clean fuel, will also help the EU deliver on its climate pledges and is therefore considered a critical to diversifying energy supplies.
“The market case and the need to scale up was coming and wasn’t quite here yet. Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine has meant that everything gets accelerated,” Trudeau told reporters yesterday. The Canadian plant will use wind energy to produce hydrogen and ammonia for export to Germany.
The pair planned to discuss the possibility of Germany purchasing liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from Canada. “As Germany is moving away from Russian energy at warp speed, Canada is our partner of choice,” Scholz said in Toronto. “For now, this means increasing our LNG imports. We hope that Canadian LNG will play a major role in this.” Germany has no active LNG terminals necessary for it to receive these shipments, though two are expected to go online by the end of this year.
TOP EU CLIMATE OFFICIAL DIES: Mauro Petriccione, the head of the European Union’s climate division, died yesterday, according to EU officials.
Petriccione was tapped in 2018 to lead the Directorate General on Climate Action, and was considered a key figure in helping Europe craft its plans to fight climate change and reduce emissions.
His death was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said on Twitter: “Mauro was a dear, respected colleague. His work earned him respect and friendships in Europe & beyond,”
Others also took to social media to pay their respects, including European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, who said: “His kindness, warmth, humor and professionalism will be missed by all of us who had the privilege of knowing him.”
The Rundown
Bloomberg A ‘tsunami of shutoffs’: 20 million US homes are behind on energy bills
Financial Times Methane hunters: what explains the surge in the potent greenhouse gas?
Washington Post Appalachian, Indigenous pipeline foes say climate deal ‘left us to burn’
Calendar
TUESDAY | AUGUST 30
9:30 a.m. Silver Spring, Md. The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will hold a meeting of the Science Advisory Board; tasked with reviewing NOAA activities and priorities. Learn more about the advisory board meeting and register here.
THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 1
1 p.m. The White House, the EPA’s Office of Water, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hold a virtual discussion titled. “Regional Reflections on Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions: Southwest.” Register for the virtual event here.
