The “New Nuclear” blog of Hogan Lovells lawfirm reported on June 9 that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the government entity responsible for overseeing America’s bulk power system, put out a report recommending that nuclear power technology be cannibalized to take a “support” role for the throwback technologies of earlier centuries now returning from the grave, solar and wind. New Nuclear, which buys into the ruinous idea, said the NERC report “underscores the benefits that can be achieved through an advanced nuclear/renewable energy partnership to compensate for the intermittent nature of solar and wind power,” among which it cites the Natrium operation of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
In fact, in October 2020, the Department of Energy selected TerraPower to “to demonstrate the Natrium™ reactor and energy system with its technology co-developer GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and engineering and construction partner Bechtel.” Writes “New Nuclear” (basically quoting TerraPower), “Natrium couples a 345 MWe nuclear reactor with a molten salt energy storage system that can flexibly operate in sync with renewable power sources. Its thermal storage has the potential to boost the system’s output to 500MWe of power for more than five and a half hours.”
Moreover, now quoting from the NERC report: “As the intermittent renewable energy capacity increases in power grids as a proportion of overall capacity, the industry requires more flexible power generation options, providing an opportunity for advanced reactors to support renewables while continuing to decarbonize the electricity sector. Advanced nuclear power technologies are intended to operate flexibly, either at full capacity (producing large amounts of reliable, carbon free-electricity) or load-following paired with renewable energy, promoting both decarbonization and reliability of the grid at any time of day.”
And why? Because the NERC, in its 2021 Summer Reliability Assessment of bulk power systems and the grid for this summer (which started today), “warns that typically hot-summer states that rely heavily on solar photovoltaic generation (Solar PV), may experience blackouts and energy shortfalls during above-normal peak temperatures.... While Solar PV plants provide energy to support peak demand, the generated output rapidly declines in the afternoon at the time when demand in these states remains high. The regional increase in demand and decline in resources may reduce the quantity of surplus capacity available when California, for example, is in shortfall.”
