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We have lost a lot of capability to build big complex engineering projects on time and on budget.
Biden's Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Professor Kathryn Huff, strikes me as a representative of the best hope for the United States, young, extremely bright, informed and committed.
The above quote comes from her response in an interview she gave.
Q&A: The priorities of the USA's new assistant secretary for nuclear energy 13 June 2022
...What do you feel is the biggest challenge for nuclear energy right now?
In the United States, we have lost a lot of capability to build big complex engineering projects on time and on budget. I do think that this is a moment for us to seize an opportunity and demonstrate that we still can do this. The investors and financial interests that are ready to put dollars on the table for our clean energy transition, they need to see some predictability in those timelines and budgets and I think that's an opportunity that nuclear really could hold in its hand if we can see these new demonstration projects come through as expected in a predictable way.
DOE’s new Civil Nuclear Credit Program is accepting applications to support the continued operation of US reactors. How impactful can this programme be?
This programme is absolutely critical. Nuclear power provides half of our nation's clean electricity and it is the single largest source of our clean electricity. We cannot allow these plants to be economically at risk because we failed to recognise their important contributions to our clean energy system, to our firm energy capacity, and our energy resilience. Once a nuclear plant closes, it can be very hard to start it back up again, so we really just cannot allow them to close in the context in which we need them...
...Advanced nuclear will be in the clean energy conversation at several high-profile international events this year, including the Nuclear Power Minsterial and Clean Energy Ministerial that will both be held in the USA. What role do you see for nuclear energy in global efforts to combat climate change?
This is a fantastic moment for the United States to reclaim global nuclear energy leadership. We're really in a position to lead in the conversations, the bilateral and multilateral engagements that will come out of these meetings, and in the incentives that we can see broadly for energy security and the carbon transition worldwide.
You also helped create a new funding line in the congressional budget for nuclear R&D at US universities and colleges. What does this mean for the university research community moving forward?
There is nothing more important to me personally than education. Making sure that this university R&D line has its own particular place in our budget, really highlights its importance and enables us to think critically about bigger problems and to enable bigger solutions. It's really going to enable bright ideas to come out of the university. Those ideas can be picked up by the national laboratories that can bring those bright ideas and creative high-risk, high-reward concepts into fruition and then the industry can pick up the down-selected ideas from the national laboratories. This is how innovation should work and making it its own line really enables us to focus on that and think bigger...
In the United States, we have lost a lot of capability to build big complex engineering projects on time and on budget. I do think that this is a moment for us to seize an opportunity and demonstrate that we still can do this. The investors and financial interests that are ready to put dollars on the table for our clean energy transition, they need to see some predictability in those timelines and budgets and I think that's an opportunity that nuclear really could hold in its hand if we can see these new demonstration projects come through as expected in a predictable way.
DOE’s new Civil Nuclear Credit Program is accepting applications to support the continued operation of US reactors. How impactful can this programme be?
This programme is absolutely critical. Nuclear power provides half of our nation's clean electricity and it is the single largest source of our clean electricity. We cannot allow these plants to be economically at risk because we failed to recognise their important contributions to our clean energy system, to our firm energy capacity, and our energy resilience. Once a nuclear plant closes, it can be very hard to start it back up again, so we really just cannot allow them to close in the context in which we need them...
...Advanced nuclear will be in the clean energy conversation at several high-profile international events this year, including the Nuclear Power Minsterial and Clean Energy Ministerial that will both be held in the USA. What role do you see for nuclear energy in global efforts to combat climate change?
This is a fantastic moment for the United States to reclaim global nuclear energy leadership. We're really in a position to lead in the conversations, the bilateral and multilateral engagements that will come out of these meetings, and in the incentives that we can see broadly for energy security and the carbon transition worldwide.
You also helped create a new funding line in the congressional budget for nuclear R&D at US universities and colleges. What does this mean for the university research community moving forward?
There is nothing more important to me personally than education. Making sure that this university R&D line has its own particular place in our budget, really highlights its importance and enables us to think critically about bigger problems and to enable bigger solutions. It's really going to enable bright ideas to come out of the university. Those ideas can be picked up by the national laboratories that can bring those bright ideas and creative high-risk, high-reward concepts into fruition and then the industry can pick up the down-selected ideas from the national laboratories. This is how innovation should work and making it its own line really enables us to focus on that and think bigger...
Good stuff.
The world can be saved, and if it is, it will because of people like Dr. Huff.
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