Texas takes a huge step towards nuclear dominance – Watt gets along with it?

From cfact

By Duggan Flanakin

Is everything bigger in Texas?

Texas A&M Systems Premier John Sharp announced last week that his university surpassed the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now owns the country's largest nuclear engineering research department.

Just in time, as Sharp also announced that Texas A&M provides land near its Rellis Innovation and Technology Campus, a campus located on 2,400 acres in Bryan, Texas, built to several nuclear reactor companies Small modular reactor (SMRS).

“Simple and simple,” said Sharp, a former state auditor general and former member of the Texas Railroad Commission. “The United States needs more power. No one in the country except Texas is willing to strengthen and build us. The power plant.”

The CEOs of Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Land Energy and Aalo Atomics have all agreed to work with the Texas A&M System to bring the reactor to Rellis Campus, part of a project called the “Energy Proving Ground.”

Their shared goal is to build and test commercially ready technologies that can bring more nuclear power to the Texas Electricity Reliability Commission (ERCOT, managing the Texas Grid) within five years and ultimately bring Enter a country that desires energy.

According to Sharp, the Rellis campus is the first suitable location in the United States, where reactor manufacturers and power-dependent companies in large technologies can build clusters of small modular reactors to deliver the power required by artificial intelligence efforts, data centers and power grids. .

Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Greg Abbott and others in the Texas government, the Texas A&M system is ready to do the necessary things for the country to flourish. There is no doubt that the “Basics of Energy Proof” project will also re-engage top talents into universities.

Last November, Governor Abbott announced the release of the final report of the Texas Senior Nuclear Reactor Working Group. Just a few days later, he declared: “Texas is the energy capital of the world and we are ready to be number one in advanced nuclear power.”

A working group created by the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUCT) in the direction of Abbott to evaluate the state’s establishment of “a world-leading advanced nuclear power industry to enhance power reliability and energy security, promote economic development and promote economic development , , promotes economic development and unlocks new opportunities for the growing Texas workforce.”

The working group reported that advanced nuclear reactors would enhance energy security by increasing power generation in Texas. Nuclear energy will power urban centers, ports, oil and gas areas, industrial facilities, data centers and military bases. Nuclear also improves the reliability of ERCOT, as nuclear power is more reliable than coal, wind or solar power.

Since advanced SMRs can be set up together with data centers and support heavy industries, they can help create new, well-paid jobs, increase productivity, and generate income for households and national finance as they provide process heat, power dehydration plants, And make oil fields.

A better business report says Texas SMR deployment could provide more than $50 billion in new economic development by 2055, directly or indirectly through average construction, operations hiring 148,000 people and providing Texas workers with $27 billion in wages.

Another result of this driving nuclear energy development is Texas' potential to lead the state in power generation. Establishing Texas as the preferred supplier of ANR technology in the United States will open international opportunities for those who prefer alternatives to Chinese and Russian nuclear reactor technology.

The working group also made several recommendations on legislative action to improve the state’s ability to attract ANR projects, starting with the establishment of Texas’ advanced nuclear authority, an unregulated entity to Coordinate the state’s strategic nuclear vision and implement ANR policies.

Other suggestions include:

• The Texas nuclear license officer is a single point of contact.
• Workforce development programs for community colleges and universities to support the creation of local nuclear staff.
• A senior manufacturing institute in Texas to help nurture Texas’ nuclear ecosystem.
• Texas’s Nuclear Public Outreach Program informs and educates Texans on the benefits of advanced nuclear reactor technology through communications and public participation.
• The Texas Nuclear Energy and Supply Chain Fund will be a direct grant, cost-sharing program designed to inspire early development and site selection and support supply chain and domestic manufacturing energy.
• The Texas Nuclear Energy Foundation, based on the Texas Energy Fund, overcomes the funding faced by developers of Texas funded Valley projects.

To simplify the regulatory process and enable four participating companies to quickly obtain their reactor operations, Texas A&M officials have begun using the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start the application process to obtain early-stage site permits to potentially develop commercial electrical and thermoelectric power facilities. The site can accommodate multiple SMRs with combined electrical outputs exceeding 1 GW.

Land Energy CEO Simon Irish hopes to develop an integral molten salt reactor (IMSR) at the Bryan site. Kairos Power CEO Mike Laufer plans to bring one or more commercial deployments to the site.

Natura Resources CEO Douglass Robison's company has partnered with the university for five years to develop its Natura MSR-1 demonstration system and will now focus on deploying its commercial Natura MSR-100 system. Aalo Atomics CEO Matt Loszak hopes to build up to six Aalo Pods at the site.

Abilene Christian University is underway for a Texas-based nuclear power plant project, and Natura Resources is building a new nuclear reactor that will produce reliable “carbon-free” energy while also desulfurizing Transformed water. In 2023, Natura established the ACU's new Science and Engineering Research Center, the first advanced reactor research institute outside the U.S. National Laboratory.

Natura has produced a feasibility study at Texas Tech in Texas at the University of Texas in Lubbock. They found that by operating in a molten salt reactor at 600 degrees Celsius, it can generate up to 250 megawatts of electricity that can be used for the production of water, other salt water and even seawater.

The reactor construction is expected to be completed in 2027, after which the Natura team will begin integrating the system to start desalination of the water. Molten salts are mixtures of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride or mixtures of fluoride salts that act as both fuel and coolant.

Gov. Abbott believes that “by leveraging advanced nuclear energy, Texas will improve the reliability of the state’s grid and provide Texans with affordable adjustable capabilities.”

Building the Texas ANR industry will ensure that Texas remains the leader in energy, but Texas is not the only country moving in that direction. Perhaps Texas' biggest competitor is in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, home to IKE Project Ike, a new nuclear development project promoted by the new Tennessee Nuclear Energy Foundation.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said the fund was formed by the Tennessee General Assembly, with a $60 million annual presence, was very successful in recruiting nuclear energy projects, announcing four in six months. Like Governor Abbott, Governor Lee hopes to make Tennessee “the number one state where nuclear energy companies invest and thrive.”

The power of the people – What a new idea!

This article originally appeared on real clear energy

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