At COP28, the United States and 24 other countries made a landmark announcement, declaring their commitment to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Just two days ago, the outgoing administration unveiled a framework to expand the countryโs nuclear capacity from the current 97 GW to an ambitious 300 GW.
This framework outlines a near-term target of 35 GW of new capacity by 2035, followed by an additional 15 GW annually by 2040, and ultimately achieving 200 GW of new capacity by 2050.
The framework emphasises the strategic siting of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) at recently retired or soon-to-retire coal-fired power plants (CFPPs), as highlighted in the following excerpt from the report:
“๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐๐๐ด ๐ข๐ต ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ-๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ-๐ต๐ฐ-๐ฏ๐ถ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ-๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐ธ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ-๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ณ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ-๐ฑ๐ข๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ, ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ.”
For more details, explore the COP28 announcement and the full report here: US COP28 Announcement
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