Executive Summary
There is a growing consensus that both existing and advanced nuclear could play important roles in the decarbonization of the electricity grid and other parts of the U.S. and Canadian economies. Decarbonization of the electricity, transportation, and industrial heating sectors could come from large amounts of firm, carbon-free energy produced through nuclear technology.
Vision
The Advanced Reactor Roadmap outlines a path forward for advanced reactor technologies to help meet the market need for reliable, affordable, and zero-carbon emissions sources of energy. This early version will focus on North America and has five primary audiences:
1) potential owner-operators
2) policymakers and regulators
3) financial institutions
4) public stakeholders and rightsholders
5) industry stakeholders
Approach
Advanced reactors build on the safety record of existing nuclear power facilities to provide even safer risk profiles. This risk reduction, coupled with modern monitoring and control technology, provides the opportunity to reshape how nuclear technology is developed, regulated, deployed, and operated. Changing how advanced reactors are pursued and viewed is important to achieve leveraged benefits—including easing of deployment challenges, accelerating deployments, and increasing cost-
competitiveness, all while increasing safety and reliability.
Enablers
Driving the value of advanced reactors to fulfill critical market needs can be enabled by several conditions related to policy, regulatory, and public acceptance surrounding the commercialization of advanced reactors. The following enablers, with associated key opportunities, provide a valuable framework for focusing the solutions and actions that will enable large-scale deployment success.
Actions
The industry actions focus on what the industry can control in delivering a timely portfolio of products with benefits to the market. A cross-section
of industry subject matter experts, leaders, and stakeholders engaged to develop an informed assessment of the key opportunities and the actions
needed to address those opportunities within the context of wide-scale deployment of advanced reactors in the 2030s. This assessment included deep dives into multiple strategic elements in three primary pillars.
