NC communities call for Advanced Nuclear sooner, rather than later

Community leaders fear the limitations put in place by regulators, and the slow-walking of advanced small modular reactors (SMR) deployment, will cause North Carolina communities to miss out on homegrown and imported growth, specifically due to a lack of reliable energy resources.

From AI, to data management, to advanced manufacturing, the tech industry is using more and more megawatts every day; and its energy needs will continue to grow. SMRs are an efficient and effective solution for this challenge — undeniably “green” due to the total lack of emissions — but, despite the high-profile inclusion of SMRs passed in House Bill 951, they are still at least a decade away.

That’s according to Duke Energy, North Carolina’s monopoly electric utility, who filed plans earlier this month for an advanced nuclear power plant at its Belews Creek site in Stokes County. If all goes smoothly, from state regulator approval to federal permitting, the new advanced nuclear facility would come online in 2035.

Meanwhile, China is widely using and developing SMRs for their own grid, worryingly overtaking the US in utilization of these technologies.

After all, the technology is not exactly experimental.

In fact, it has been used safely and successfully for decades, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The US Navy has had approximately 100 operational SMRs powering submarines and ships for 75 years, marking thousands of kilowatt hours of safe, reliable energy generation powering the largest navy in the world.

So, the elongated timelines for SMR deployment here in the Tar Heel State leave many concerned about higher energy costs, lower reliability (more blackouts), and lost growth as a result. If North Carolina were to miss the train for AI and other tech industry developments, due to insufficient power, it may well become eligible for the “Rip Van Winkle State” moniker all over again.

On the other hand, solving this energy supply gap may very well enable North Carolina to leapfrog regional rivals in competing for high-impact development deals.

According to energy experts, plentiful, reliable power from an SMR would go a long way toward assuring residents and businesses that power will be available even in dead of winter and the worst of summer. That’s the kind of certainty big businesses and small communities look for when considering where to live in prosper.

“Economies dislike uncertainty,” says Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation, in an interview with Carolina Journal. “The longer we go with the uncertainty of how we will replace baseload coal power in this state — not to mention if we do so with reliable resources like natural gas leading to nuclear or lean heavily on unreliable, intermittent sources like solar and wind — the more difficult it will be to expand economic opportunities, especially in rural communities.”

In a good sign for making progress on this front, earlier this summer Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed into law, the Advance Act. Through the act, bill authors aim to compress the frustratingly long timelines for nuclear power plants, to help build new reactors at a clip not seen since the 1970s. 

“President Biden is determined to ensure nuclear power — the nation’s single largest source of carbon-free electricity — continues to serve as a key pillar of our nation’s transition to a safe and secure clean energy future,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement following the legislation’s signing.

While political opponents may view the Biden administration’s words as mere lip-service, more often voicing support for Green new Deal policies that make energy more expensive, changing the narrative on nuclear shouldn’t be underestimated.

“The current energy policy of replacing working coal plants with other, lower-emissions power facilities is going to make power bills more expensive,” asserts Sanders. “That said, adding reliable, clean-energy plants like SMRs would mitigate the worst of the price increases and provide reliable power rather than cause residents to pay a lot more for power they can no longer depend upon.”

One local leader scratching his head as to why North Carolina and her communities aren’t leading the charge in these kinds of energy solutions is retired North Carolina senator Andy Wells.

Wells is in the data center business. Naturally, he sees the tech industry as a significant source of growth for communities across North Carolina. But he points out that it doesn’t matter how many shiny incentives the state offers, deals developers close, or ribbons we cut, if we can’t power them.

Like many North Carolina communities, Catawba County, where Wells is from, has struggled to draw tech industry developments because of this dearth of available power.

“Why is North Carolina delaying a proven energy provider that has served the United States Navy well for 70 years?” Wells asked in written testimony to the NCUC in June. “Small modular technology is safe. Flexibility makes it less expensive. We can boost our economy. We can move into a clean energy future.”

And, while the warming of federal regulators to advanced nuclear deployment is encouraging, Wells would like to see more local officials seeking private industry connections for building their own power sources.

You might ask, “Can private industry help in a world of ultra-regulation and state-enforced monopolies?” Maybe.

Wells points to places like Kemmerer, Wyoming, where local county commissioners are asking private industry (in this instance, Bill Gates’ company Terrapower) to bring the SMRs to power their counties.

“A small Wyoming town has stepped up to replace coal with a new (Natrium) modular reactor,” submitted Wells in his NCUC testimony. “The Biden administration says it’s clean energy and they skipped the massively expensive natural gas transition. Like most things, technology goes where it is wanted.”

If energy innovators and high-energy users get the sense they’re not wanted in North Carolina, Wells worries rural communities like the Catawba Valley, and countless others across the state, will once again pay the price for being out of step. These communities have lived through that before, when about half of North Carolina’s manufacturing base evaporated due to changing international trade deals two decades ago.

“When the market is moving, and it is, we need to be first in line,” Wells concluded in his written testimony. “We can’t sit back and watch a major economic driver move to other states because they welcomed the new technology of small modular reactors, and we didn’t.”

‌The NCUC is to issue an order on Duke’s near-term action plan, outlining near-term energy generation source management and planning, by the end of the year. This order will guide Duke’s capital spending for the next two years.

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