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Anthropocene Institute

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From Dubai to Texas: New Investments Lighting the Spark for Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy is seeing a lot of momentum, from the state level to global negotiations. But how do we best make use of this momentum? By making the most out of current opportunities and investments, nuclear energy can become an important piece of a clean energy system. During SXSW, we attended and helped promote the Nuclear Texas event to start that process.
“Nuclear Texas is an initiative to form something where people who are serious about nuclear energy can come out with action items and ideas on how we can make nuclear happen,” said Andrew Kirima, pictured on the right.
“Nuclear Texas is an initiative to form something where people who are serious about nuclear energy can come out with action items and ideas on how we can make nuclear happen,” said Andrew Kirima, pictured on the right.

As COP28 saw leaders of the world rally behind a pledge to triple the global supply of nuclear energy by 2050 and with growing bipartisan support for nuclear energy, the energy industry is launching initiatives for putting action plans into place that allow nuclear technology to scale fast enough to meet an exponentially increasing demand for low-carbon energy. One such initiative is Nuclear Texas, a gathering of stakeholders in the nuclear industry to accelerate the future of nuclear power in Texas. The Anthropocene Institute supports these types of initiatives and attended the Nuclear Texas event at SXSW this March.
The event, hosted by Andrew Kirima, Deep Tech VC, and Will Howard, Energy Developer, highlighted how important it is to take advantage of the momentum created by these pledges and convert it into actionable ideas for developing nuclear energy at scale. Nuclear Texas is an initiative to bring necessary stakeholders into the same room: politicians, industry representatives, developers, and investors. The funding challenge needs to be solved, but there is also a challenge of perception.

Nuclear Texas: A catalyst for a low-carbon energy system

“Nuclear is being highlighted in a more optimistic light for the first time in decades,” explained Kirima in an interview with We Don’t Have Time, adding that modern technological advancements, including the reuse of spent fuel, safety measures, and smaller reactors, all contribute to nuclear being a much more viable source of energy now than it was in the 70s. “My theory here was to keep galvanizing people behind this idea and get them excited about nuclear, but also to form something where people who are serious about this conversation can come out with action items and ideas on how we can make nuclear happen.”
Texas is a great place to get this started, as it is currently the biggest energy exporter in the United States, but while a lot of it is renewable, the industry generating this power is still highly dependent on fossil fuels for their baseload generation. To decarbonize the energy system, energy companies must be brought along on the ride towards a clean and reliable energy grid that integrates renewables and nuclear energy. Oil and gas workers can be skilled workers at nuclear and renewable plants, and existing infrastructure can be used to power an energy grid free of fossil fuels. As companies such as Liberty support nuclear energy projects, oil and gas executives appear to understand the potential for stable, low-carbon energy that nuclear power provides. But we need to move faster.

Heat Generation as a driver for nuclear investments

One avenue to drive investments into nuclear infrastructure is cogeneration, integrating nuclear plants with other systems and applications. Small reactors could provide consistent power for data centers or ramp up and down as needed, which is becoming even more crucial with the advent of AI services. The heat generated by nuclear power plants can be used to produce a vast range of products such as cooling, heating, process heat for creating synthetic fuels, desalination, hydrogen, and more.
Many communities also see nuclear as a path forward from fossil fuels to nuclear. For example, there are efforts in communities to repurpose existing coal plants from coal to non-emitting heat sources such as nuclear, leveraging existing sites, infrastructure, transmission lines, industry knowledge, workforces, capital, and supply chains to accelerate the clean energy transition. Finding these optimal use cases for nuclear energy that complement other low-carbon energy sources and provide additional benefits is crucial to ensure that the momentum the technology sees doesn’t go to waste.
To learn more about the development of nuclear energy in the U.S., listen to the full interview with Andrew Kirima here.

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