Category: Nuclear Energy

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

Fusion is developing fast and gaining momentum as a climate solution, the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said at a COP28 event on 1 December 2023 in Dubai, which highlighted the critical turning point reached by fusion energy and the growing consensus that international partnerships in fusion are the way forward.

This increased interest in fusion has been attributed to a multitude of factors, including the growing concern over the impact of climate change and security of energy supply, recent scientific and technology breakthroughs in fusion energy R&D, a significant increase of fusion activities and investments in the private sector, and the path paved by ITER in designing, fabricating, delivering, and assembling components.

The event ­­­– with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, Christofer Mowry, CEO of US private fusion company Type One Energy and Chair of the Fusion Industry Association Board and Laban Coblentz, ITER Head of Communication – highlighted fusion energy’s increasing technical readiness and strong market interest and the need for increased global collaborations among different stakeholders including governments, private industry, international organizations, NGOs, and investors through the IAEA’s announced World Fusion Energy Group (WFEG).

“This new initiative aims to enhance fusion energy collaboration and drive the discussion on fusion energy development forward, thereby bringing together public and private sectors, industry, academia and civil society in a holistic and collaborative setting to accelerate the fusion energy journey from the experimental stage towards demonstration and ultimately commercialization of fusion energy”, said IAEA Director General Grossi. The inaugural meeting of the WFEG will take place in 2024.

Until quite recently, the fusion private sector was relatively small, with a dearth of available investments for private companies in the field. However, in recent years, the private fusion landscape has seen a drastic increase in both companies and investments. The IAEA World Fusion Outlook and Fusion Industry Association report that private fusion entities continue to grow in number (43 to date), and total private investment in the fusion sector has surpassed US $6 billion.

The companies involved vary in technology, strategies, and levels of funding, but all move the global fusion community a step closer towards a shared goal: the development of fusion as a viable energy source. Governments are stepping up their efforts to engage with private industries to accelerate the path from research to the commercialization of fusion energy and this is leading to significant developments in the field which will support the clean energy transition.  

“The IAEA has a very important role to play in bringing fusion energy to the world, by providing a robust platform which convenes key stakeholders in this endeavour,” said Christofer Mowry. “The fusion community needs the experience and capability which the IAEA provides as a strong global convener in critical areas like regulation, complementing other initiatives announced here at COP28”, Mowry said.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

For the past 28 years, world leaders and environmental activists have convened annually at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) with an almost singular focus on variable renewable energy such as solar and wind as the solution to global warming. And since the first COP in 1995, the share of fossil fuels in the global energy supply has remained virtually unchanged at around 80 percent.

Meanwhile, the only energy source along with hydropower that has demonstrated the ability to decarbonize electricity supply on a national scale has mostly been taboo at the global climate gathering.

Until now.

Nuclear power has surged to the top of world headlines at COP28 in Dubai, where leaders from 22 countries on four continents came together on 2 December to announce a  declaration to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050 to meet climate goals and energy needs. The landmark declaration invited the World Bank, regional development banks and international financial institutions to include nuclear in their lending, while underscoring the need for secure supply chains to ramp up deployment of the technology.

“After 28 years in the wilderness, nuclear is finally having its moment at the world’s most important gathering on climate change—and not a moment too soon,” said Zion Lights, a former UK spokesperson for the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion. “As someone who once protested against nuclear energy and changed her mind about it, it is heartening to see just how much attitudes to nuclear energy have changed.”

The declaration came amid a flurry of other pro-nuclear power announcements at COP28, hosted by the government of the United Arab Emirates, which is completing construction on a massive four-unit nuclear power plant as part of an ambitious drive to decarbonize electricity production. The Agency led the way on 1 December when Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi unveiled the IAEA Statement on Nuclear Power, backed by dozens of countries. The next day, Mr Grossi, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the world’s first Nuclear Energy Summit, to be held in Brussels in March 2024 to maintain the global momentum behind nuclear energy.

“If you want to reconcile jobs creation, strategic autonomy and sovereignty, and low carbon emission, there is nothing more sustainable and reliable than nuclear energy,” President Macron said at that event. France and Sweden have largely decarbonized their electricity production thanks to a mix of nuclear power and hydro—prime examples of industrialized national economies whose greenhouse gas emission levels from power generation are consistent with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Net Zero Nuclear, an initiative by the World Nuclear Association (WNA) and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, supported by the IAEA Atoms4NetZero Initiative launched in COP27, also issued a pledge at a COP28 Presidency event on 5 December that committed the nuclear power industry to a goal of at least tripling nuclear capacity by 2050. “Let’s translate ambition into pragmatic policies, affordable financing for nuclear, and on-time, on-budget delivery of new nuclear energy projects,” said Sama Bilbao y Leon, WNA Director General.

To be sure, COP28 is not the first UN climate summit to feature events and advocates of nuclear power. In his first official trip as IAEA Director General in 2019, Mr Grossi travelled to COP25 in Madrid to make the case for nuclear power, which provides about a quarter of the world’s low carbon electricity. Since then, the IAEA and nuclear advocates have steadily increased their presence at the annual summit, starting at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and then last year at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, where the IAEA hosted the event’s first nuclear themed pavilion.

“As a chain reaction from the full success of Atoms4Climate at COP27, six nuclear dedicated pavilions in the Blue Zone and two nuclear pavilions in the Green Zone appeared at COP28,” Wei Huang, Director of the IAEA’s Division of Planning, Information and Knowledge Management, said at the CO28 Presidency event where he read out the IAEA Statement on Nuclear Power. In the statement, the IAEA and its Member States that are nuclear energy producers and those working with the Agency to promote the benefits of peaceful uses of nuclear energy acknowledged that all available low emission technologies should be recognized and actively supported.

Beyond the lofty declarations in Dubai, it remains unclear whether nuclear energy will feature in the final “Global Stocktake”, a key outcome expected from COP28 that will provide a snapshot of where the world stands in its efforts to achieve the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement and how countries might seek to rectify any shortcomings. In an initial document published ahead of the conference that provided global views to be considered during the official COP28 negotiations, nuclear energy was mentioned twice in suggestions to accelerate and strengthen financing and international cooperation for its deployment.

In recent years, newbuild nuclear projects in Europe and the United States have suffered construction delays and cost overruns. But projects have been delivered relatively on time and on budget in countries including Belarus, China, Republic of Korea, Russia and the UAE.

Tripling nuclear capacity by 2050 will nonetheless require overcoming major hurdles, including further enhancing international cooperation, creating an enabling policy environment, securing robust supply chains, training a skilled and diverse future workforce, and achieving greater regulatory and industrial harmonization and standardization.

“COP28 has been, in my opinion, a watershed,” Mr Grossi said in Dubai. But he also added in remarks at the summit that “achieving a fair and enabling investment environment for new nuclear projects remains an uphill battle. We are not at a level playing field yet when it comes to financing nuclear projects.”

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

More than 700 million people faced hunger in 2022, according to the United Nations. On 1 December at a joint IAEA-FAO high-level event on the occasion of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28), IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, together with FAO Director General Qu Dongyu, presented the newly launched #Atoms4Food initiative, intended to alleviate the urgent pressure of climate change on food security by bolstering agricultural production and improving soil and water management through nuclear science.

Side event attendees at COP28 heard how this new initiative builds upon the nearly 60 years of IAEA-FAO collaboration through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. It combines the organizations’ unique strengths to the benefit of populations facing hunger. The IAEA, through the Joint Centre, uses nuclear applications to support countries to identify and solve challenges caused by climate change. FAO Director General Qu stressed the importance of nuclear science and technology for evidence-based decision making.

“Food is a basic human right for everyone. We have to produce more with less because of the climate crisis. We need science-based solutions and a technically driven approach to contribute in the future,” said Mr Qu at the side event.

IAEA Director General Grossi elaborated on the IAEA’s approach to supporting Member States and the tangible nature of IAEA-FAO support envisioned under the #Atoms4Food initiative.

“We are going to start with the self-assessments made by countries, because we believe that we need to follow their approaches and what is concerning for them. Then we will roll out tailormade projects and programmes for them,” said Mr Grossi.  “We are moving in a concrete way – not too much talk, but action. We will bring to the countries the solutions they need,” he added.

From food irradiation and climate smart agriculture to plant breeding and insect pest control, side event participants heard first-hand how the effects of climate change are being successfully addressed with nuclear applications. Representatives of China, Mexico, Turkey, the United States of America and Viet Nam provided specific examples of support from both UN organizations.

“The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre has made positive and concrete gains – as is highlighted with drought resistant crops and improved water use efficiency,” said Cary Fowler, United States Special Envoy for Food Security. He went on to underscore the support of the United States for #Atoms4Food: “We welcome this new initiative – it truly builds on the organizations’ strengths – the science of the IAEA and the FAO’s presence on the ground.”

The #Atoms4Food initiative was launched in October 2023 at the World Food Forum in Rome. It is comprehensive in scope and covers crop improvement, animal production and health, soil and water management and crop nutrition, insect pest control, food safety, and public health and nutrition.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

A new international IAEA technical cooperation project, launched on 2 December 2023 at a United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) side event, will catalyze the IAEA’s existing climate adaptation activities in food and water security to harness the already expansive interregional networks of laboratories and facilitate international collaboration. The new climate adaptation project aims to support national efforts to ensure successful and sustainable solutions to the impacts of climate change.  

Attendees at the side event heard panellists describe how extreme weather events around the world are affecting key natural resources. Floods and droughts, and the near disappearance of essential bodies of water mean that populations everywhere are having to do more with less. Nuclear techniques, the audience heard, work in combination with conventional techniques to help countries to tackle harsh climate conditions, providing accurate data that allows decision-makers to assess the evolving situation, and also offering a range of effective adaptation options. 

“Without isotope hydrology we would know nothing about the effects of climate change on water resources. The same is true for greenhouse gas emissions – if we want to develop targeted mitigation methods we need to identify where they are coming from,” explained Professor Christoph Müller of Justus Liebig University, speaking at the event. 

Participants at the IAEA COP28 side event also heard how the IAEA has been able to help farmers in Namibia precisely identify moisture levels in their fields using nuclear technology, enabling the successful deployment of drip irrigation techniques. By connecting nuclear technology with conventional agricultural techniques, participating farmers have been able to increase water use efficiency by 80 per cent. The IAEA also helps countries to apply other nuclear techniques for food treatment, insect pest control and plant breeding. At the moment, 146 countries are working with the IAEA on technical cooperation projects that address climate change adaptation.  

Panellists at the event lauded the importance of partnerships in implementing sustainable and far-reaching solutions to climate change challenges, including through the provision of funds for technical cooperation efforts. “We recognize that we need to scale up our engagement in the development sector and that we need to use technology to make crops more resistant to drought and other things,” said Zamir Iqbal, Islamic Development Bank Vice President of Finance. “We believe in the technology being promoted by the IAEA – we can make good use of it and our member states can benefit from it for sustainable development,” he added. 

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

The IAEA has opened its Atoms4Climate pavilion at the annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) amid a rising wave of international support for scaling up the use of nuclear power to achieve global climate goals by slashing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming to net zero by 2050.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi on 1 December officially kicked off the start of almost two weeks of activities and events at the IAEA pavilion aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of nuclear technology and applications in both mitigating and adapting to the effects of the climate crisis. The event featured a lively conversation on the growing support for nuclear power between Mr Grossi and Isabelle Boemeke, also known as Isodope, the world’s first nuclear influencer.

Earlier, Mr Grossi unveiled a landmark IAEA statement supported by dozens of countries that underscored the need for expanded use of nuclear power to fight climate change, achieve energy security and sustainable economic development, and build “a low carbon bridge” to the future. The IAEA appeal came amid other initiatives at COP28 also calling for a significant increase in nuclear power capacity to address the global climate crisis, and ahead of the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit, to be hosted jointly by the IAEA and Belgium in Brussels in March 2024.

“If we want to achieve our climate targets, it will simply be impossible without nuclear energy,” Mr Grossi said as he announced the statement at an event together with Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan as well as Satkaliyev Almassadam, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Juhani Damski, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment of Finland.

Nuclear power currently provides almost 10 percent of the world’s electricity production, equivalent to around 25 percent of all low carbon electricity and contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Over the last five decades, nuclear power has avoided the emission of some 70 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases, including 30 gigatonnes alone since the start of the 21st century, according to the IAEA statement which also underscored nuclear power’s role in ensuring energy supply security, stabilizing electrical grids, and reducing local air pollution.

“We understand with more than 60 percent of electricity generation powered by coal, we see no other significant alternative other than nuclear power plants to ensure reliable electricity supplies,” Energy Minister Almassadam said about Kazakhstan, which is considering building a new nuclear power plant.

Mr Grossi noted that global attitudes towards nuclear power have undergone a massive shift since 2019, when he attended his first climate summit at COP25 in Madrid shortly after becoming IAEA Director General. The question he had asked himself then, he said, was: “How can this annual conference talking about energy issues and how they impact the environment be taking place without talking about the source of energy that provides around 25 percent of the world’s electricity? This was an omission and I’m not here to debate the reasons for that. The good thing is this has been overcome and we are putting things right, in the right perspective.”

Several authoritative studies, including by the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), suggest that a significant increase in world nuclear power capacity will be needed to limit the average global temperature increase since pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius, thereby averting the most devastating effects of climate change.

Finland, seeking to become carbon neutral by 2035, in April began operating a new 1600 megawatt-electric nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto that will provide almost 15 percent of the country’s electricity and has helped bring down power prices for consumers by some 75 percent. A recent public opinion poll shows more than two-thirds of Finns support nuclear power while only 6 percent oppose it.

Mr Damski attributed high Finnish public approval of nuclear power to several factors, including transparent communications about its decarbonization and energy security benefits, early involvement by policy makers, local stakeholder engagement, and a national programme to develop what is set to become the world’s first operative facility to dispose of high level nuclear waste.

“Nuclear energy has a very key role to play in climate change mitigation,” Mr Damski said. “This is a strong tool for the climate battle, and this is why it’s important for us in Finland.”

But nuclear power also plays an important role in sustainable socioeconomic development. Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey are all constructing their first nuclear power reactors, and many of the almost 30 countries that are considering introducing nuclear power are in the developing world and working with the IAEA in developing the necessary infrastructure for a safe and secure nuclear power programme.

Armenia, where a single 416 MWe nuclear reactor generates about one third of the country’s electricity, has a longstanding engagement with the Agency in its efforts to ensure its safe long-term operation and effective plant life management. The country is now looking to build a new reactor to ensure energy security and economic growth, according to President Khachaturyan. “Nuclear is a very important question for Armenia,” he said.