Climate security

Nuclear vital to decarbonisation, finds MIT study

The future of nuclear energy in a carbon-constrained world, released today at an event in London, analyses the reasons behind a slowdown in nuclear energy growth and outlines measures that could be taken to arrest or reverse that trend, including moves to reduce the cost of building new nuclear capacity and creating a level playing field that would allow all low-carbon generation technologies to compete on their merits.

The study was led by MIT researchers in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory and the University of Madison-Wisconsin, and is the eighth in a series exploring the role of technologies in meeting rapidly growing energy demand in a carbon-constrained world. The studies are intended to serve as guides to researchers, policymakers and industry.

"Our analysis demonstrates that realising nuclear energy's potential is essential to achieving a deeply decarbonised energy future in many regions of the world," study co-chair Jacopo Buongiorno, associate department head of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at MIT, said. "Incorporating new policy and business models, as well as innovations in construction that may make deployment of cost-effective nuclear power plants more affordable, could enable nuclear energy to help meet the growing global demand for energy generation while decreasing emissions to address climate change," he added.