Energy is among the most important topics in the world. It enables us to have safe water and food, powers our transportation, facilitates modern medicine, and protects us from the elements. No one could disagree with the criticality of energy, with particular focus on electric power, process heat, and transportation fuel. But increasingly, the focus is on accessing power without its negative production externalities like waste, pollutants, and even carbon dioxide emissions. While the focus often turns immediately to renewables like wind and solar, nuclear energy has quietly provided ultra-low-carbon power safely, efficiently, and reliably for decades.
Nuclear power accounted for 18.6 percent of our electricity mix in 2023 but only nine percent of the total energy mix. But what if I told you we already have a virtually all-nuclear energy mix? Sound crazy? Read on to expand your perspective!
Conventionally understood, “nuclear power” refers to electricity generation from fission reactions within a nuclear reactor. This process releases immense amounts of heat, which turn water into steam to spin power-generating turbines, but the heat itself can also be utilized for numerous energy needs. Nuclear is a rare find in the energy landscape, because it leverages a natural resource (uranium) and with enrichment and powerful human innovation and ingenuity, splits the atom to form a reaction that releases heat. Harnessing the atom itself is among the pinnacle moments in human history. Other power sources are more direct, like allowing wind or water to flow through the blades of a turbine. Solar relies greatly on human engineering as well, while hydrocarbons are generally more simple, being used for combustion (albeit in highly engineered and technologically advanced facilities). Already, nuclear stands out. It is unlike the other ways we generate power.
If we think creatively, however, we can broaden the use of the word “nuclear” to encompass all of the traditional energy sources, including of course nuclear power, as well as solar power, wind, geothermal power – and even hydrocarbons! How can those be called nuclear?
It all starts with the sun – the largest nuclear energy source in our solar system. As a giant ball of gas, the sun is sustained by powerful nuclear fusion taking place in its core. Fusion – simplified here as the opposite of fission – is the joining of atomic nuclei. Whereas nuclear fission splits them to release heat, fusion forces them together. The sun radiates its heat and light in all directions, with much of it hitting earth and keeping our planet habitable.
This makes the argument for solar being considered a form of nuclear power quite obvious. The sun is a nuclear fusion reactor, sending us free power in the form of radiation. When we harness that in photovoltaic solar panels or by focusing the heat through concentrated solar applications, we generate electricity indirectly from a nuclear reaction.
Wind is generated by atmospheric conditions largely driven by temperature differentials caused by the sun. It is a bit more indirect, but the suns influence is unmistakable. Everything from the sun’s gravity to its radiation forming differences in temperature and atmospheric pressure act together to generate wind across the planet (with more local factors contributing significantly as well). Wind power, then relies on the nuclear fusion of the sun, making it indirectly another sources of nuclear power.
Biomass is not unlike solar power, in that something drinks in the sun’s radiation. Plants utilizing photosynthesis convert the radiated light from the sun into plant power. Trees, a core element of biomass, make for convenient sources of combustion. We can burn the wood from trees to produce heat to spin turbines or warm up spaces. The sun’s role in producing and sustaining biomass is clear – yet another indirect nuclear power source.
The leap to hydrocarbons doesn’t seem so far fetched now, as they are only one step removed from biomass. Coal, oil, and natural gas – nicknamed “fossil fuels” – are generally produced from long buried and compress organic material. Long after the sun nurtured a tree – or for a double indirect example an animal that ate a plant – the biomass is transformed geologically into hydrocarbon resources that we burn. A long chain of events, all kicked off by a nuclear reaction.
How about geothermal? Can we rightly call the heat welling up from the earth itself an effect of the sun? Perhaps a long and indirect story can be told on a cosmic timespan, but fortunately a more direct story exists: the earth’s core hosts its own nuclear fusion reactor. This heat makes its way through the mantle, and at the surface, escapes through volcanic and hydrothermal vents. We can tap into it through geothermal facilities that, like conventional power, allow the heat to interact with water to form steam that spins a power-generating turbine.
Hydropower is perhaps the least directly nuclear. But like solar and wind have taught us, the sun’s influence is unmistakeable on our uniquely habitable planet. In fact, to quote the U.S. Department of Energy, “The energy generated through hydropower relies on the water cycle, which is driven by the sun, making it renewable.”
So there you have it, our all-nuclear energy portfolio! Through both nuclear fusion in the cores of the earth and sun and the highly-engineered solution of nuclear fission by innovators right here on the surface, nuclear power makes life possible. But as much as this thought exercise is interesting, what does it all mean and what should we do with it?
It puts an interesting emphasis on nuclear fusion. If that process is sustaining so much of what we take for granted, is there a way we can harness it ourselves? Innovators have taken this challenge head on, with astonishing results. In laboratories across the world, fusion reactions are being attempted, tested, and improved. If it can be proven, it would unlock “limitless” power; but the best current technology has achieved is on the order of minutes. To sustain reactions hotter than the sun, much more innovation is needed.
While scientists work on this problem, policymakers can encourage testing through policy incentives, friendly regulatory environments (that emphasize safety while allowing creative testing), and more. But they should also keep their eyes on the assets we have, namely the tried and true, well-proven, nuclear fission. Unless or until we can tap nuclear fusion and go all nuclear more directly, we can and should increase the prominence of nuclear power in our existing energy mix.
The imminent deployment of small and modular nuclear fission reactors will likely make this more feasible. It will be incumbent on industry leaders and policymakers to ensure the safety of these reactors and their waste management, but not let red tape and outdated laws hold back a move that would ensure energy security without the emissions or geopolitical supply disruptions associated with hydrocarbons. We may not go all nuclear tomorrow, but we can lean into nuclear today and hopefully unlock greater access to limitless, clean energy within the next generations.
Written by Benjamin Dierker, Executive Director
The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) is an independent, national research and educational organization. An innovative think tank, Aii explores the intersection of economics, law, and public policy in the areas of climate, damage prevention, energy, infrastructure, innovation, technology, and transportation.