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A KEY DEVELOPMENT FOR NUSCALE?: NuScale announced this morning that its small nuclear reactors are capable of producing 25% more power than previously expected, a development that could help address cost concerns raised by potential customers.
The Oregon-based nuclear technology company is claiming its reactors can generate 77 megawatts of electricity per module, compared to the current expectation of 60 megawatts.
NuScale says the higher output would enable a power plant of 12 individual 77-megawatt reactors to lower its overnight capital cost -- basically the expense of running a plant -- on a per kilowatt basis from an expected $3,600 to roughly $2,850.


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“The NuScale design is evolving in a way that better supports potential customer needs and concerns,” Brett Rampal, nuclear manager for Clean Air Task Force, told Josh.
He said NuScale would still need to get regulatory approval before customers could use the reactors with higher electricity output, even though the company is not changing the fuel used to power it or its underlying technology.

This can only help Nuscale’s case: Despite being no sure thing, it’s a positive development for a company racing to be the first in the U.S. to operate a small nuclear reactor, which supporters are counting on as a key potential carbon-free tool to address climate change.
It comes as NuScale has faced questions from customers about the high cost of the project.
At least eight members of the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), a group of small, community-owned utilities in six Western states that is planning to be NuScale’s first customer, have opted out of the project in recent weeks.
In August, UAMPS notified NuScale that it was pushing back the timeline for when it plans to operate the first reactor from 2026 to 2029, citing an unexpected rise in costs.
The Energy Department last month approved a $1.4 billion grant to help defray costs for the utility group and its members, but that did not stop some cities from leaving the project.
NuScale is also hoping to entice other customers outside UAMPS and says its reactors will be on the market for sale by 2027.
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FED ACKNOWLEDGES CLIMATE RISK FOR THE FIRST TIME: The Federal Reserve is sounding the alarm on the risks climate change poses to financial markets.
Climate change “is likely to increase financial shocks and financial system vulnerabilities that could further amplify these shocks,” the U.S. central bank said in its financial stability report released yesterday. It’s the first time the Fed has included discussion of climate risks in the report, which comes out twice a year.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has talked increasingly about climate risks in recent months. Just last week, he told reporters the Fed is “very actively in the early stages” of determining how to account for and address climate-related risks to the financial system. The Fed has been engaging with central banks around the world on the issue, he added.
Pressure is mounting: President-elect Joe Biden is expected to tackle climate risks to financial markets with new climate disclosure rules and other requirements for banks and companies to take into account how climate change would affect their bottom line.
Though an independent agency, the Fed will likely be called on to take much stronger action on climate risks. Currently, the Fed is deepening its understanding of the full scope of climate risks to markets, the stability report says.
The Fed doesn’t, however, call on banks to take any additional measures to disclose or address climate-related risks. The report only says the Fed expects “banks to have systems in place that appropriately identify, measure, control, and monitor all of their material risks, which for many banks are likely to extend to climate risks.”
Flag this for future reference: Federal Reserve member Lael Brainard, reportedly on the shortlist to be Biden’s Treasury secretary, said it’s not enough for the Fed to simply acknowledge climate risks. The central bank must move “to the stage where quantitative implications of those risks are appropriately assessed and addressed,” she said in a statement on the report.
Brainard added, “Increased transparency through improved measurement and more standardized disclosures will be crucial.”
Her comments come as some activists have criticized Brainard for being too quiet on climate change during her time on the Fed, which they say signals she wouldn’t be as aggressive on the issue as other more left-wing picks for Treasury secretary, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren.