Nuclear's Second Wind:
Innovative "fast" nuclear power plants may be a strategic imperative

by Evgeny Adamov

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Nuclear power needed 50 years to gain the same position in global energy production as the one achieved by hydropower over hundreds of years. All those years, proposals for new reactor concepts would come up every now and then alongside mainstream reactor technologies. In the nuclear-friendly 1960s and 1970s, some of those "innovative" concepts even led to demonstration or pilot projects.



Few people, perhaps, may remember that nuclear power was not brought into existence by energy deficiency. Its advent was caused by the Second World War and the associated pressing necessity for increasing the power of weapons. Once the war ended, nuclear plans were fuelled by the intentions of both weapons designers (e.g., Russia's I. Kurchatov who initiated construction of the world's first nuclear power plant in Obninsk and US politicians led by President Dwight Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" Initiative in 1953) to counterbalance the military effort by encouraging peaceful nuclear applications.

The Changing Context

Today, energy demands still are largely met by fossil fuels, as they were at the outset of nuclear development. In recent decades, zealous supporters of nuclear power have repeatedly referred to the imminent shortages of fossil fuels, though this gloomy prospect will not threaten humanity for another 100 years. That means potential shortages are not the only - or predominant - factor to encourage active search for alternative sources of energy.


Projected Nuclear Capacity Growth

Another factor is the evolving political framework. In the early period of nuclear power, it was assumed that the commercial industry would develop in the context of bipolar possession of nuclear weapons (NATO with the USA at the head versus the Warsaw Treaty led by the USSR). As it turned out later, weapons-related technologies would not be confined to the circle of five States declared to belong to the nuclear club. Instead, the problem of non-proliferation acquired a more acute significance compared to developments influencing energy technologies. This was especially so in the context of the energy-saving drive and newly found oil and gas fields - including offshore deposits - which brought down the price of fossil fuels to record-breaking levels.


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