America is still a powerhouse in nuclear innovation, and it’s time to show the rest of the world.
The United States was the first to harness the atom that is now used to power our Navy, fight cancer cells, protect our food, explore space, and even solve crimes. Much of the conversation today is about how we can meet our clean energy goals. What better way to do that than with the clean and reliable attributes of nuclear energy?
Right now, more than 60 companies are working on new reactor designs that will be economically competitive, faster to build, more flexible to operate and generate less waste. This new generation of reactors is truly amazing.
To use this powerful technology to enhance today’s reactors and build the reactors of tomorrow, the country needs to reestablish infrastructure to test and qualify advanced materials that will make these designs a reality.
One essential element for this modern industry is a versatile test reactor. The U.S. Department of Energy must move to build one.
The VTR, tightly coupled with the rest of our research infrastructure, will provide the state-of-the-art science and technology capability needed to sustain advanced nuclear technology innovation by U.S. industries.
The VTR’s mission will be to provide a reliable source of high-energy neutrons needed to test and develop advanced-reactor fuels, materials, sensors, and instrumentation.
Many of the advanced reactors that will likely produce power in the future will be fast reactors that use high-energy neutrons. These reactors interact differently with the materials they contact. Unfortunately, U.S. developers are currently limited in the amount of data they can use to characterize these materials appropriately. This is because America has not operated a fast-test reactor in more than two decades. The VTR would eliminate this research gap and drastically reduce the time it takes to test, develop, and qualify advanced reactor technologies.
Advanced nuclear reactors will be developed with or without the United States.
If we do not build this testing capability, U.S. companies will have no choice but to rely on foreign countries, such as Russia and China, to develop their technologies.
This would put the U.S. at a disadvantage in many ways. It would be a missed opportunity for our nation to continue to modernize its nuclear research infrastructure and to expand new technologies that could reenergize the nuclear industry.
Regaining and sustaining global leadership in this emerging technology space is essential to protecting the interests of America and its allies when it comes to nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation.
The Department of Energy will move forward with the development of a conceptual design, with an operational target as early as 2026, at the site of one of our national labs. The project team for the VTR is a nationwide group of 36 partners from the industry, universities, and national laboratories with the goal of making America a leader in nuclear innovation.
In parallel with the conceptual design effort, the DOE has begun preparation of an environmental impact statement to ensure that all environmental factors are considered before it makes a final decision to move forward with the project.
The VTR is essential for our commitment to U.S. leadership in clean, reliable energy. We are excited about this new tool and want to share its progress, which anyone can follow online.
Dr. Rita Baranwal is assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.
