The Future of Nuclear in an Data- and Electricity-Hungry World

Electricity demand worldwide surges due to economic development, but also the spread of data centers, electric vehicles, and heat pumps. It has induced new interest in building new nuclear reactors, extending the lifetime of existing ones, and even reactivating shut-down nuclear power plants. At the same time, a number of advanced reactor designs are put into practice. These Gen-IV reactors vary from standard concepts and each other in terms of fuel and cooling method used. Increasing shares of renewables in total electricity generation put the usefulness of nuclear power, a classic baseload technology, into question. On a global level, most of the reactors being built are located in Asia, and especially in China. Many licenses of existing nuclear reactors were prolonged, way beyond the initial 40-year lifespans, in some cases for staggering 80 years. Nuclear waste management as well as intermediate and final disposal often remains unsatisfactory. Breakthroughs in transmutation research can help to reuse highly radioactive waste, to greatly reduce the waste volume to be deposited, and to reduce the duration of radiotoxicity by several orders of magnitude.