WEBVTT	#Elemental Media Engine(TM) 2.17.1.0

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mushroom clouds or bring
back memories of disturbing

00:00:07.424 --> 00:00:10.593
nuclear disasters like
Chernobyl and Fukushima.

00:00:12.053 --> 00:00:15.473
Today, fears over nuclear
safety are at the forefront

00:00:15.598 --> 00:00:19.144
again as Russia's war on
Ukraine rages on.

00:00:19.477 --> 00:00:21.604
The nuclear threat remains
present.

00:00:22.981 --> 00:00:25.692
Russia has control of the
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power

00:00:25.817 --> 00:00:28.611
plant in southeastern
Ukraine. This was after an

00:00:28.737 --> 00:00:31.239
unprecedented attack on
that facility.

00:00:31.906 --> 00:00:36.369
The nuclear weapons program
was the first atomic

00:00:36.536 --> 00:00:41.332
program, and out of that
grew the application of that

00:00:41.666 --> 00:00:44.169
technology, of the
splitting of the atom for

00:00:44.294 --> 00:00:46.212
energy production, not for
destruction.

00:00:47.756 --> 00:00:52.677
And so it's very difficult
to separate those two

00:00:52.802 --> 00:00:56.848
things. And a lot of people
who are, for example,

00:00:56.973 --> 00:00:59.225
concerned about nuclear
weapons and the

00:00:59.350 --> 00:01:02.020
proliferation of nuclear
weapons and things like that

00:01:02.437 --> 00:01:07.442
tend to be anti nuclear
reflexively as a function of

00:01:07.567 --> 00:01:09.444
the connection between
those two things.

00:01:10.111 --> 00:01:14.032
There's so much fear and so
much misinformation.

00:01:14.240 --> 00:01:19.370
And I think even now our
media and TV like our

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entertainment, it's a
convenient villain, I think

00:01:22.665 --> 00:01:26.127
nuclear is, because it is
scary and radiation scary

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and our industry hasn't
done a good job of talking

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about that. Like how it's
okay to be scared, but

00:01:34.135 --> 00:01:36.304
that's not the same thing
as dangerous.

00:01:36.638 --> 00:01:39.390
Despite public fear around
nuclear power, the

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technology has proved to be
an emission-free, reliable

00:01:42.852 --> 00:01:45.563
way to produce large
amounts of electricity on a

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small footprint. As a
result, sentiments about the

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technology are beginning to
change.

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Even Elon Musk has come out
as a vocal proponent of

00:01:56.407 --> 00:01:57.408
nuclear power.

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The United States derives
over 50% of its zero carbon

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output for electricity from
its nuclear power plants.

00:02:09.170 --> 00:02:12.465
And so there's been a lot
of money both at the state

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level and now at the
federal level, for keeping

00:02:16.594 --> 00:02:21.558
existing nuclear plants
open so that we continue to

00:02:21.683 --> 00:02:23.393
retain that zero carbon
value.

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And also a lot of money
going into what's called

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'the next generation of
nuclear power,' which is

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smaller reactors that are
designed to be safer, and

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cheaper and easier to
deploy.

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CNBC visited Idaho National
Lab to see one of these next

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generation nuclear
reactors.

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What you're looking at is
called PCAT.

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It's a full-scale prototype
of the Marvel reactor, and

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the Marvel reactor would be
the first of its kind that

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will be able to demonstrate
how we can really

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miniaturize a nuclear
system into something that

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is portable and
transportable.

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There are 93 commercial
nuclear reactors at 55 sites

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operating in the United
States, with 26 reactors in

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some phase of
decommissioning. Only two

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new reactors, at the Vogtle
plant in Georgia, are

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currently under
construction.

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Most of the historical
reactor development happened

00:03:40.386 --> 00:03:44.974
in the 1950s, sixties and
early seventies.

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This was at a time when our
energy demand was growing

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very quickly, much more
quickly than it is now.

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And sources of energy were
thought to be relatively

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scarce.

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All 93 of the nuclear
reactors operating

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commercially in the U.S.
today are what are known as

00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:04.661
light water reactors.

00:04:05.119 --> 00:04:07.580
The most widely used fuel
for such reactors is

00:04:07.705 --> 00:04:10.750
uranium, a common metal
mined from rocks all over

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the world. The United
States imports the majority

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of its uranium. Canada,
Kazakhstan and Russia are

00:04:18.007 --> 00:04:19.300
among the nation's biggest
suppliers.

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But in the wake of the war
in Ukraine, the United

00:04:23.554 --> 00:04:26.474
States is urging domestic
producers to step up.

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A light water reactor works
primarily by using fission

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reactions to produce heat.

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Nuclear fission occurs when
a heavy atom, like a uranium

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atom, is bombarded with
neutrons or interacts with

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with neutrons. These
particles interact with the

00:04:44.409 --> 00:04:49.080
nucleus of a uranium atom
and makes it unstable.

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It splits apart. When it
splits apart, it produces

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large quantities of energy.

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That energy release heats
up the coolant, which in

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light water reactors is
water.

00:05:01.175 --> 00:05:03.428
That heated water then
produces steam.

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The steam turns a turbine,
which turns a generator,

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which produces electricity.

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Worldwide there are about
440 operational nuclear

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reactors that are
responsible for supplying

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around 10% of the world's
electricity.

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The United States, once a
leader in building out

00:05:21.112 --> 00:05:24.157
nuclear power plants, has
today fallen behind

00:05:24.282 --> 00:05:25.658
countries like Russia and
China.

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There were several accidents
which really affected the

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public perception of
nuclear power.

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The Three Mile Island
accident in 1979, the

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Chernobyl accident in 1986,
and Fukushima in Japan in

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2011. There hasn't been
much construction of nuclear

00:05:50.391 --> 00:05:55.021
power recently because of
the change in perception

00:05:55.313 --> 00:05:57.231
after these accidents.

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And also in the nineties,
the deregulation of the

00:06:02.445 --> 00:06:06.491
energy markets in the
United States left nuclear

00:06:06.616 --> 00:06:10.953
power competing with all
other kinds of energy on an

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open market. And in those
markets, natural gas is

00:06:15.333 --> 00:06:16.000
cheaper.

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The sheer volume of money
which is required to build

00:06:20.713 --> 00:06:23.633
large reactors in the
United States today and the

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amount of time that it
takes is a significant

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disincentive. Any utility
company is going to say, you

00:06:31.766 --> 00:06:33.893
know what, it's a lot
easier for me to build a gas

00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:39.816
plant. It's cheaper and
people don't care as much.

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Aside from challenges around
public perception, costs and

00:06:43.945 --> 00:06:48.032
construction time, another
often cited criticism is the

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fact that nuclear power
plants produce radioactive

00:06:51.077 --> 00:06:55.373
nuclear waste. Allison
Macfarlane specializes in

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nuclear energy and nuclear
waste disposal and served as

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chairman of the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory

00:07:01.504 --> 00:07:03.756
Commission for two and a
half years.

00:07:04.090 --> 00:07:08.428
Once the spent fuel comes
out of a reactor, it's very

00:07:08.553 --> 00:07:10.555
hot, both radioactively and
thermally.

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That material needs to be
placed in a pool where

00:07:16.060 --> 00:07:20.356
there's active cooling,
water's actively circulated,

00:07:20.565 --> 00:07:23.609
and that keeps that
material cool while some of

00:07:23.734 --> 00:07:27.488
the initial radioisotopes
decay away.

00:07:27.655 --> 00:07:30.366
And then it does get cool
enough, after about five

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years, that you can remove
it from the pool and put it

00:07:33.411 --> 00:07:37.415
in dry storage, which are
basically these concrete and

00:07:37.540 --> 00:07:41.794
steel casks that sit on a
concrete pad and passively

00:07:41.919 --> 00:07:43.463
cool the material.

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But yes, that's a that's a
safe practice and it's a

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standard practice all
around the world to do that.

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In the U.S., nuclear waste
is stored at the nuclear

00:07:54.098 --> 00:07:56.893
reactor facilities because
there's no national waste

00:07:57.018 --> 00:08:00.646
repository. Plans to
establish such a repository

00:08:00.771 --> 00:08:03.983
at Yucca mountain in Nevada
have been thwarted by local

00:08:04.108 --> 00:08:05.776
and federal politics.

00:08:06.944 --> 00:08:09.864
There are some countries
like France that also

00:08:09.989 --> 00:08:11.616
reprocess spent nuclear
fuel.

00:08:12.617 --> 00:08:17.288
It is possible to take used
fuel and process it, recover

00:08:17.413 --> 00:08:21.167
the useful materials, the
remaining enriched uranium,

00:08:21.292 --> 00:08:23.669
the other fissile material
such as some of the

00:08:23.794 --> 00:08:27.048
plutonium, and that could
be used as fuel in future

00:08:27.173 --> 00:08:28.174
reactors.

00:08:29.050 --> 00:08:31.052
But that too is not a
perfect solution.

00:08:31.802 --> 00:08:33.679
That costs a lot of money.

00:08:34.055 --> 00:08:35.348
We won't do that in the
U.S.

00:08:35.848 --> 00:08:39.060
because uranium is
plentiful and cheap.

00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:42.563
Another common argument
against nuclear power is

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that we already have other
renewables to help us

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decarbonize.

00:08:47.318 --> 00:08:48.653
Nuclear is a baseload power
source.

00:08:48.986 --> 00:08:50.696
That means it runs all the
time.

00:08:51.447 --> 00:08:56.285
For renewables to be used
all the time, you need to

00:08:56.410 --> 00:09:00.122
have a huge build-out of
battery technology.

00:09:00.665 --> 00:09:02.083
Right now, that doesn't
exist.

00:09:07.463 --> 00:09:12.260
Nuclear power in the United
States has changed its

00:09:12.385 --> 00:09:15.680
future, and its prospects
have changed quite

00:09:15.805 --> 00:09:19.392
substantially over the last
2 to 3 years.

00:09:19.934 --> 00:09:23.688
There were a number of
plants that were in line to

00:09:23.813 --> 00:09:26.274
be shut down and some were
shut down.

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But a number of states and
now the Biden administration

00:09:32.363 --> 00:09:36.617
has made a determination
that you need those plants

00:09:36.742 --> 00:09:40.913
and their zero carbon
electricity output in order

00:09:41.038 --> 00:09:43.499
to meet the climate
objectives of the country

00:09:43.791 --> 00:09:45.084
and also at the state
level.

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The war in Ukraine has
disrupted energy markets in

00:09:49.797 --> 00:09:52.800
Europe and reignited
conversations around the

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need for countries to be
energy independent.

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In the wake of Fukushima,
the German government made a

00:09:59.473 --> 00:10:03.352
determination to shut down
all of their nuclear energy

00:10:04.061 --> 00:10:08.024
and make themselves even
more dependent on Russian

00:10:08.149 --> 00:10:09.400
natural gas.

00:10:10.276 --> 00:10:12.903
Back in the U.S., one of the
plants scheduled to be

00:10:13.029 --> 00:10:16.282
decommissioned is Diablo
Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

00:10:16.407 --> 00:10:17.658
in San Luis Obispo,
California.

00:10:19.118 --> 00:10:21.871
The state's last remaining
nuclear power plant has a

00:10:21.996 --> 00:10:24.999
long history of
anti-nuclear protests.

00:10:25.875 --> 00:10:28.669
Lately, there's been heated
debate on whether to extend

00:10:28.794 --> 00:10:33.215
the plant's lifespan beyond
its planned 2025 retirement.

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The reasons why nuclear
power plants are shut down

00:10:37.928 --> 00:10:40.723
are often complicated and
typically come down to

00:10:40.848 --> 00:10:42.391
political and economic
factors.

00:10:43.726 --> 00:10:46.896
The two drivers for nuclear
are price and politics.

00:10:48.022 --> 00:10:50.650
But one Diablo Canyon
employee says that the clean

00:10:50.775 --> 00:10:53.527
energy produced by the
plant is still needed.

00:10:53.861 --> 00:10:57.031
Part of the reason that the
closure of Diablo Canyon was

00:10:57.156 --> 00:11:03.162
announced so early in 2016
with a nine year lead time,

00:11:03.996 --> 00:11:06.540
was so that we could
prepare and get more clean

00:11:06.666 --> 00:11:10.836
energy online so that when
we shut Diablo Canyon, we

00:11:10.961 --> 00:11:13.673
could replace it with clean
energy and we just haven't

00:11:13.798 --> 00:11:15.132
made much progress.

00:11:15.341 --> 00:11:18.052
Heather Hoff has worked at
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power

00:11:18.177 --> 00:11:20.554
Plant for over 18 years.

00:11:20.846 --> 00:11:24.725
In 2016, she co-founded
Mothers for Nuclear, an

00:11:24.850 --> 00:11:26.977
activist group that
supports the protection of

00:11:27.103 --> 00:11:29.563
existing nuclear power
plants, as well as the

00:11:29.689 --> 00:11:31.357
construction of new ones.

00:11:31.816 --> 00:11:34.402
Still, Hoff says she
understands the reluctance

00:11:34.527 --> 00:11:35.945
to embrace nuclear power.

00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.989
And it's something that she
herself struggled with when

00:11:39.115 --> 00:11:41.367
she started working at
Diablo Canyon.

00:11:42.076 --> 00:11:46.038
My family was pretty nervous
about me working there, and

00:11:46.163 --> 00:11:49.750
I was a little nervous as
well. I'd heard a lot of

00:11:49.875 --> 00:11:54.839
stories, you know, of scary
things and just didn't

00:11:54.964 --> 00:11:56.966
really know how I felt
about nuclear.

00:11:57.216 --> 00:12:00.970
I spent the first probably
six years of my career there

00:12:01.095 --> 00:12:05.641
asking tons and tons of
questions and eventually

00:12:06.016 --> 00:12:09.729
kind of changed my mind
about nuclear and realized

00:12:09.854 --> 00:12:13.899
that it was in really good
alignment with my

00:12:14.024 --> 00:12:16.569
environmental and
humanitarian values.

00:12:17.278 --> 00:12:20.114
Californians seem to be
changing their views, too.

00:12:20.239 --> 00:12:24.535
A recent poll found that
44% of voters are in support

00:12:24.660 --> 00:12:28.789
of building new nuclear
plants, compared to 37% who

00:12:28.914 --> 00:12:31.751
oppose such a measure. But
that's not to say Hoff never

00:12:31.876 --> 00:12:34.670
questioned her newfound
respect for nuclear power.

00:12:35.337 --> 00:12:39.550
In March 2011, a
9.0-magnitude earthquake

00:12:39.675 --> 00:12:43.012
struck off the coast of
Japan, triggering a tsunami.

00:12:43.888 --> 00:12:46.807
Suddenly, the world had a
nuclear disaster on its

00:12:46.932 --> 00:12:48.017
hands.

00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.145
Brian, for the first time,
Japan declared an atomic

00:12:51.270 --> 00:12:54.940
emergency at two nuclear
power plants and Japanese

00:12:55.065 --> 00:12:57.777
officials say they have
lost control of two

00:12:57.902 --> 00:12:58.778
reactors.

00:12:59.612 --> 00:13:01.822
For any existing reactor.

00:13:01.989 --> 00:13:05.576
What you need is to be able
to continue to pump the

00:13:05.701 --> 00:13:10.706
coolant around the fuel so
that it doesn't get too hot

00:13:10.873 --> 00:13:14.585
and then melt down. And
what happens is in

00:13:14.710 --> 00:13:17.922
Fukushima, the electricity
went out.

00:13:18.047 --> 00:13:22.176
And then in every reactor,
there's backup generation,

00:13:22.301 --> 00:13:24.845
which is mostly diesel
fuel.

00:13:26.055 --> 00:13:30.643
But the diesel generators
in Fukushima were on the

00:13:30.768 --> 00:13:34.980
ground and were swamped by
the tsunami.

00:13:35.856 --> 00:13:39.902
And so they weren't able to
keep the coolant pumping.

00:13:40.611 --> 00:13:42.696
And so the fuel melted
down.

00:13:43.030 --> 00:13:45.241
It's sitting at the bottom
of the reactor.

00:13:45.699 --> 00:13:47.952
And then the explosions
that you saw was the build

00:13:48.077 --> 00:13:53.249
up of hydrogen inside of
the reactor containment that

00:13:53.374 --> 00:13:53.749
I was actually in the
control room at Diablo

00:13:53.874 --> 00:13:55.793
then blew.

00:13:55.918 --> 00:13:59.547
Canyon during the few days
when the Fukushima events

00:13:59.672 --> 00:14:01.549
were unfolding.

00:14:01.715 --> 00:14:03.968
And it was super scary.

00:14:05.094 --> 00:14:09.056
And it's like my worst
nightmare as an operator,

00:14:09.181 --> 00:14:13.394
you know, to be there and
think about these other

00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:17.940
operators just across the
ocean from us and they don't

00:14:18.065 --> 00:14:19.608
know what's going on with
their plant.

00:14:19.733 --> 00:14:22.319
They have no power. They
don't know if people are

00:14:22.444 --> 00:14:25.865
hurt. Some of what I was
hearing on TV and the media

00:14:25.990 --> 00:14:27.199
was pretty scary.

00:14:27.324 --> 00:14:30.327
But then, you know, like
when we actually learned

00:14:30.452 --> 00:14:33.956
what was going on, it
wasn't as bad as I thought.

00:14:35.165 --> 00:14:38.002
No one was actually hurt by
events that happened at the

00:14:38.127 --> 00:14:41.380
plant, and that was really
surprising to me.

00:14:41.505 --> 00:14:44.884
So I kind of went from
like, Oh my gosh, I'm going

00:14:45.009 --> 00:14:49.555
to have to quit to like,
Oh, now I feel even more

00:14:49.680 --> 00:14:52.892
strongly that nuclear is
the right thing to do.

00:14:53.767 --> 00:14:56.478
Although there have been no
direct deaths attributed to

00:14:56.604 --> 00:15:01.483
the Fukushima disaster
itself, over 160,000 people

00:15:01.609 --> 00:15:04.320
were evacuated from their
homes as a result of the

00:15:04.445 --> 00:15:05.779
tsunami and nuclear
incident.

00:15:07.031 --> 00:15:10.534
About 41,000 have not yet
been able to return home.

00:15:11.035 --> 00:15:13.579
Some experts predict that
it will take another 30

00:15:13.704 --> 00:15:15.915
years to clean up the
Fukushima plant.

00:15:16.415 --> 00:15:20.252
But there is some good
news. A 2021 report

00:15:20.377 --> 00:15:23.172
concluded that the doses of
radiation that Fukushima

00:15:23.297 --> 00:15:26.717
residents were exposed to
are such that future

00:15:26.842 --> 00:15:30.137
radiation associated health
effects are unlikely to be

00:15:30.262 --> 00:15:31.138
discernible.

00:15:34.016 --> 00:15:38.979
After every major nuclear
accident, there has been a

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regulatory response and the
industry in the United

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States and around the world
has been required to make

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changes, often substantial
changes, to their

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facilities. We learned that
in the case of the Fukushima

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accident, for instance,
that we've never planned for

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more than one reactor to
meltdown at a site at a

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time. Sites had
insufficient backup

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capabilities in case more
than one reactor went down

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at a time. And so all
reactors were required to

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build up their capabilities
against natural hazards and

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reevaluate natural hazards.

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Experts say the 1986
Chernobyl accident was the

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result of flawed reactor
design and inadequately

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trained personnel.
Chernobyl is, to this day

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considered the world's
worst nuclear disaster.

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In many ways, it forever
altered the way nuclear

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reactors are built and run.

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What you see when you look
at it, any nuclear reactor

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that's of the current
generation, is this big

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curved concrete covering
over the reactor, what is

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called the reactor vessel.

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And so that didn't exist in
Chernobyl.

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So when it melted down and
it spread a lot of

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radiation, it was a
disaster.

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Today, the industry is
working on another crop of

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nuclear power reactors
known as advanced reactors.

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Advanced reactors will have
very few refueling cycles.

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It's going to have
extremely improved

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economics. And the safety
pedigree has to be extremely

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high to the point where
there are accident scenarios

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that are not even possible.

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Compared to conventional
light water reactors.

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Advanced nuclear reactors
are designed to be simpler

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and may use different fuel
types and coolants in order

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to improve operational
performance and safety.

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Among these advanced
nuclear reactors are molten

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salt reactors, high
temperature gas reactors and

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sodium cooled fast
reactors.

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All of these technologies
are based on technological

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concepts which were
developed in the early phase

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of nuclear power. But
there's now a desire by

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governments to try and
perfect them in a way that

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we haven't been able to do
in the past.

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For the past two years,
Yasir Arafat and his team at

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Idaho National Laboratory
have been working on a

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prototype of an advanced
nuclear reactor known as

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Marvel. While the current
fleet of large nuclear power

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reactors can each produce
upwards of 1,000 megawatts

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of electricity, Marvel is
what is known as a

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microreactor. As their name
suggests, microreactors are

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much smaller in size and
operate at a much smaller

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scale, producing less than
20 megawatts of electricity.

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Though being a prototype,
Marvel will only produce

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about 100 kilowatts of
electricity.

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Instead of powering an
entire city.

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A single microreactor can
be used to power a hospital,

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military base or disaster
zone.

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The advantage, Arafat says,
is that microreactors can be

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manufactured at scale in
factories, significantly

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cutting costs and
construction time.

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Plus microreactors would
increase electric grid

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resilience because if one
reactor goes down, it can

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easily be swapped for
another. But use cases for

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microreactors go beyond
electricity production.

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A lot of the end customers,
they're not necessarily

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looking for electricity,
but they're looking for

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high-grade heat for
different applications,

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running a chemical process
or industrial process, or

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even using low-grade heat
for district heating.

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This machine can actually
deliver both.

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As for safety, Arafat points
to several features.

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First, automation.

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These systems are designed
to be self regulated, so you

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don't require hundreds of
operators to run these.

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You essentially would need
one or two just for

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oversight, but they
wouldn't necessarily need to

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control the system
manually.

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Eventually, Arafat envisions
a system that won't require

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any operators. Instead, the
reactor would be able to

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self-regulate,
automatically adjusting to

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the energy needs of the
power grid.

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In case something does go
wrong, the systems would

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also be equipped with
shielding.

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There's going to be
extensive amount of

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shielding around these
systems that actually not

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only provides radiation
protection, but also

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provides protection from
external weather conditions

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or manmade hazards.

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As opposed to water, the
Marvel reactor will use a

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sodium potassium eutectic
mixture coolant designed to

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more efficiently remove
heat from the reactor core.

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The fuel will also be
different.

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We're using a fuel called
uranium zirconium hydride.

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Why do we use this fuel?

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Because it actually has a
very strong safety pedigree

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that is inherent to the
physics of the material.