Obama Administration Banking On Next-Generation Nukes

The Fukushima nuclear disaster has done nothing to deter the Department of Energy from its pursuit of next generation and small modular nuclear reactors, according to the DOE's First Quadrennial Technology Review, released Wednesday.
The outlook expressed in that document differs from a more pessimistic view expressed soon after the Fukushima meltdowns by Hussein Khalil, director of Argonne National Laboratory’s Nuclear Energy Division:
“In the U.S. we have a lot of energy options. Not the same is true in other countries. We also have less government determination of energy policy, and so I think the prospects for new plants are very limited. But I think we’ll try to keep our existing plants going and try to get the most out of them. As long as we can safely do that.”
In May, DOE scientists launched a virtual reactor that models ways they could operate existing reactors longer and more intensely to extend the life of the existing fleet.
But the Quadrennial Technology Review (pdf) expresses the same cheery outlook toward next-generation reactors that Steven Chu expressed before Fukushima. Even if the optimism doesn't come as a surprise, DOE's anticipation of obstacles to nuclear technology might startle some in an era when other nations are abandoning reactors.
DOE contends the reactors have "high potential for materiality," and it identifies Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing as the technology's primary obstacle. At the same time it says offshore wind mills face "resistance due to viewshed impacts" and marine hydropower faces uncertain costs and "competing resource uses [that] challenge adoption."
DOE"s first Quadrennial Technology Review outlines the department's research strategy for reducing the nation's dependence on oil.