To strengthen American competitiveness in energy, the DOE’s ARPA-E department is focusing on advanced nuclear
Interchange Recharged
Wood Mackenzie
4.8 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2024
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Department of Energy’s ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy) is an agency tasked with the research and development of advanced energy technologies. Since 2009, they’ve provided nearly US$4 billion in funding for more than 1500 potentially transformative energy technology projects.
One particular area of focus for them at the moment is advanced nuclear. There’s a lot of potential for nuclear to deliver reliable power to millions of American homes, but projects are still finding costs prohibitive. Could advancements in technology be the thing to change this? Jenifer Shafer is Associate Director for Technology at ARPA-E, and she joins us to discuss initiatives in her department, and the focus on reducing imports, reducing emissions, improving efficiency and enhancing American competitiveness in clean energy manufacturing.
What are the priorities for nuclear? Is it advancements in technology, getting costs down, or removing regulatory barriers to deployment? To analyse the current state of the sector, Jenifer is are joined by David Brown, Director of Energy Transition Practice at Wood Mackenzie, for the second half of the show. Together they explore the impact of the Biden administration's US$900 million support for nuclear small modular reactors, and the government’s role in sponsoring new supply sources for uranium.
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Transcript
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| 0:40.3 | A U.S. government project in the 1960s paved the way for the innovation of the internet. |
| 0:45.7 | Could the same thing be happening with advanced nuclear in 2024? |
| 0:49.6 | This is the interchange Recharged, a Wood McKenzie production. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm David Banmiller. In the late 1960s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, created the ARPANET, |
| 1:04.0 | a means to enable researchers to share information and resources quickly and effectively. |
| 1:10.0 | It introduced technologies like TCP- IP protocols, the foundations of which modern Internet |
| 1:15.9 | still uses today. |
| 1:17.6 | The Department of Energy's ARPA-E, that's Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy, is an agency |
| 1:23.9 | tasked with R&D of Advanced Energy Technologies. |
| 1:35.4 | Since 2009, they've provided nearly $4 billion in funding for over 1,500 potentially transformative energy technology projects. |
| 1:37.7 | One area of focus is advanced nuclear. |
| 1:40.4 | There's a lot of potential for nuclear to deliver reliable power to millions of American homes, |
| 1:45.0 | but the projects are still finding cost prohibitive. |
| 1:48.0 | Could advancements in technology be the thing to change this? |
| 1:52.0 | Jennifer Schaefer is Associate Director for Technology at RPE. |
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