Required Readings

• Michael Barnard, “Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Put Dollar Sign Dreams In Nuclear Industry’s Eyes,”  Medium, July 30, 2023.
• Kennedy Maize, ”Debate Continues: Can New Technology Save Nuclear Power?” Power Magazine, January 1, 2019.
• John Rowe, “Energy Policy: Above All, Do No Harm” (transcript of a presentation at the American Enterprise Institute, March 8, 2011).
• Henry Sokolski, “Energy Economics—Nuclear and Nonnuclear Lecture Notes,” Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. November 2023.
• Henry Sokolski, “Reactors Large and Small: Three Hurdles,” a video lecture from Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. March 25, 2020.
• “What is the cheapest way to cut carbon?” The Economist, February 24, 2021.

Recommended Readings

Nuclear Power’s Economic Competitiveness 

• Rami W. Bitar and Ali Ahmad, “Solar vs Nuclear: Which is cheaper for water desalination?” AUB Policy Institute, Policy Brief #2, February 2017.

• Peter Bradford, “How to close the U.S. Nuclear Industry: Do Nothing,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 69, no. 2 (March/April 2013): 12-21.

• Nick Butler, “The Challenge for Nuclear is to Recover its Competitive Edge,” Financial Times, September 3, 2018.

• “Cost and Performance Characteristics of New Generating Technologies, Annual Energy Outlook 2020,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, January 2020.

• Mark Diesendorf, “Dispelling the Nuclear ‘Baseload’ Myth: Nothing Renewables Can’t Do Better!” The Ecologist, March 10, 2016.

•  “Economics of Nuclear Power,” World Nuclear Association, updated March 2020.

• Antony Froggatt & Mycle Schneider, “World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2020,” September 28, 2020.

• Devin Hartman, “Disciplined Policy Responses to Nuclear Retirements,” (R Street Policy Study No. 84, February 2017).

• Steve Kidd, “Nuclear in China – Why the Slowdown?” Nuclear Engineering International, August 10, 2017.

• Lazard, “Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis 14.0,” October 2020.

• Amory B. Lovins, “Does Nuclear Power Slow Or Speed Climate Change?”, Forbes, November 18,2019.

• Amory B. Lovins, “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?” Foreign Affairs 55, no. 1 (October 1976).

• John Mueller, “Costs of the Proliferation Fixation,” in Atomic Obsession:  Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al Qaeda (New York:  Oxford University Press, 2010), 129-142. Password Protected PDF

• News, Articles and Reports on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs), Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility,  September 2020.

• “Nuclear Costs in Context,” Nuclear Energy Institute, October 2020.

• “Nuclear Energy is Competitive in Independent Cost Analyses of New Generating Capacity,” (fact sheet, Nuclear Energy Institute, September 2011).

• Sonal Patel, “How the Vogtle Nuclear Expansion’s Costs Escalated,” Power, September 24, 2018.

• “Second thoughts on South Africa’s pebble-bed reactor,” Nuclear Engineering International, April 2, 2017.

• Albert Wohlstetter, et al., “Economic Aspects of Nuclear Proliferation,” in Swords from Plowshares: The Military Potential of Civilian Nuclear Energy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 71-110.

• “Unlocking Reductions in the Construction Costs of Nuclear: A Practical Guide for Stakeholders,” Nuclear Energy Agency, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2020.

• U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Levelized Cost and Levelized Avoided Cost of New Generation Resources in the Annual Energy Outlook 2021,” February 2021.

Micro, Small, and Advanced Modular Reactors

• Adrien Cho, “U.S. Department of Energy rushes to build advanced new nuclear reactors,” Science, May 20, 2020.

• Joel Funk, “We’ve been here before: Wyoming nuclear project echoes of past,” WyoFile, July 30, 2021.

• Edwin Lyman, “’Advanced’ Isn’t Always Better: Assessing the Safety, Security, and Environmental Impacts of Non-Light-Water Nuclear Reactors,” Union of Concerned Scientists, March 18, 2021.

• M.V. Ramana, “The Forgotten History of Small Nuclear Reactors,” IEEE Spectrum, April 27, 2015.

• Brenda Shaffer and Alan Howard, “The Hidden Dangers of a Carbon-Neutral Military,” Foreign Policy, August 12, 2021.

• Small Nuclear Power Reactors, World Nuclear Association, updated October 2020.

• Henry Sokolski and Bryan Clark, “Military micro-reactors: Waging yesterday’s wars while losing the future’s,” Defense News, June 15, 2021.

• Henry Sokolski and Victor Gilinsky, “Bill Gates’ Fast Nuclear Reactor: Will It Bomb?” The National Interest, July 20, 2021.

• Henry Sokolski and Victor Gilinsky, “Dangerous Decisions about Advanced Nuclear Reactors Could Lead to New Threats,” The National Interest, May 2, 2021.

• Henry Sokolski and Victor Gilinsky, “Small military nuclear reactors: In need of global safeguards,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 3, 2020.

• Study on the use of mobile nuclear power plants for ground operation, United States Army, October 26, 2018.

• Office of Nuclear Energy, Advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

• Office of Nuclear Energy, “Nation’s First Small Modular Reactor Plant to Power Nuclear Research at Idaho National Laboratory,” June 11, 2019.

• World Nuclear Association, Advanced Nuclear Power Reactors, February 2020.

• World Nuclear Association, Small Nuclear Power Reactors, February 2020.

Nuclear Power and Global Warming

• A. Abdulla, M. J. Ford, M. G. Morgan, and D. G. Victor, “A retrospective analysis of funding and focus in US advanced fission innovation,” Environmental Research Letters 12, 2017.

• Fieveson, Hal, “Nuclear Power, Nuclear Proliferation, and Global Warming,” Physics and Society, Vol. 32, No. 1,  January 2003.

• Steve Kidd, “After COP-22—What is the Opportunity for Nuclear?” NEI Magazine, February 10, 2016.

• McKinsey & Company, “Greenhouse gas abatement cost curves,” accessed August 19, 2016.

• S. Pacala and R. Socolow, “Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies” Science 103 (August 13, 2004): 968-972.

• Peter Schwartz and Spencer Reiss, “Nuclear Now: How Clean, Green Atomic Energy Can Stop Global Warming,” Wired 13, no. 2 (February 2005).

• Sharon Squassoni, “The Realities of Nuclear Expansion” (testimony for U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing, “Nuclear Power in a Warming World: Solution or Illusion?” Washington, DC, March 12, 2008).

• U.S. Department of Energy, “Revolution…Now: the Future Arrives for Five Clean Energy Technologies – 2015 Update” (November 2015).

Nuclear Subsidies

• Peter A. Bradford, “Wasting time: Subsidies, operating reactors, and melting ice,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 73, no. 1 (January 2017): 13-16.

• Anthony Froggatt and Simon Carroll, “Third Party Insurance: The Nuclear Sector’s ‘Silent’ Subsidy in Europe,” in Nuclear Power’s Global Expansion: Weighing Its Costs and Risks, ed. Henry Sokolski (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2010), 555-625.

• Victor Gilinsky, “When 10,000 Square Miles of Contamination is an Acceptable Risk: The NRC’s Faulty Concept,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 29, 2017.

• “Insurance: Price-Anderson Act Provides Effective Liability Insurance at No Cost to the Public” (fact sheet, Nuclear Energy Institute, September 2012).

• Doug Koplow, “A Case Study of Subsidies to Calvert Cliffs,” in Nuclear Power’s Global Expansion ed. Henry Sokolski (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2010), 335-382.

• Doug Koplow, et al. “Effect of subsidies and regulatory exemptions on 2020-2030 oil and gas production and profits in the United States.” IOP Publishing. Environmental Research Letter 16. July 29, 2021.

• Doug Koplow, “The Nuclear Solution? The Role of Subsidies and Market Distortions,” NPEC Public Policy Retreat, March 4, 2017.

• John J. Laureto & Joshua M. Pearce, “Nuclear Insurance Subsidies Cost from Post-Fukushima Accounting Based on Media Sources,” Sustainability, December 12, 2016.

• “Nuclear Liability Insurance (Price-Anderson Act),” National Association of Insurance Commissioners, updated August 10, 2018.

• Public Citizen, “Price-Anderson Act: The Billion Dollar Bailout for Nuclear Power Mishaps” (fact sheet, September 2004).

• Restoring America’s Competitive Nuclear Energy Advantage, U.S. Department of Energy, 2020.

• Pamir Wang, “Federal Loan Guarantees and their Moral Hazards,” in Pure Risk: Federal Clean Energy Loan Guarantees, ed. Henry Sokolski(Arlington, VA:  NPEC, 2012), 5-20.

• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Fact Sheet on Nuclear Insurance and Disaster Relief Funds,” March 29, 2012.

Uranium Enrichment

• Frank N. von Hippel and Sharon K. Weiner, “No Rush to Enrich: Alternatives for Providing Uranium for U.S. National Security Needs,” Arms Control Association, July/August 2019.

• Steve Kidd, “Uranium Enrichment – Why are Prices Now Much Lower and What is the Impact?” Nuclear Engineering International, December 2016.

• Thomas Meade and Eileen Supko, “Enrichment excess is here to stay,” Nuclear Engineering International, October 13, 2015.

• Hui Zhang, “China’s Uranium Enrichment and Plutonium Recycling 2020-2040: Current Practices and Projected Capacities,” Nuclear Policy Education Center, June 23, 2020.

Plutonium Recycling

• Matthew Bunn, Hui Zhang, and Li Kang, The Cost of Reprocessing in China, (Managing the Atom Project, Belfer Center, January 2016).

• Matthew Bunn, Steve Fetter, John P. Holdren, & Bob van der Zwaan, “The Economics of Reprocessing vs. Direct Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel,” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, December 2003.

• Shaun Burnie & Frank Barnaby, “Nuclear Proliferation in Plain Sight: Japan’s Plutonium Fuel Cycle- A Technical and Economic Failure But a Strategic Success,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, March 1, 2016.

• Jeremy Dillon, “’Sea change:’ Advanced reactors spur look at recycling waste,” E&E News, June 9, 2020.

• “Estimation of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Cost,” Atomic Energy Commission Bureau, November 10, 2011.

• Gilinsky & Macfarlane, “A Minority Opinion: Dissenting Statement,” Review of DOE’s Nuclear Energy Research and Development Program, National Academies Press, 2008.

• Ed Lyman, “Independent Report Confirms that Downblending and Geologic Disposal is Best Option for Plutonium,” All Things Nuclear (Blog), Union of Concerned Scientists, December 7, 2015.

• Masafumi Takubo & Frank von Hippel, “Forty Years of Impasse: The United States, Japan, and the Plutonium Problem,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, August 23, 2017.

• U.S. Department of Energy, Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Strategic Plan, report GNEP-167312, Rev. 0, January 2007.

• Webinar: Nuclear Power, Recycling and Advanced Reactors, United States Association for Energy Economics, July 22, 2020.

Natural Gas

• Ali Ahmad, Patrick Clawson, Robin Mills, Geoffrey Styles, & Stephen Thomas, “Saudi Arabia and Iran Energy Analyses,” Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, March 10, 2018.

• The Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, NET Power, updated 2020.

• Adam Barth, Jamie Brick, Dumitru Dediu, and Humayun Tai, “The future of natural gas in North America,” McKinsey & Company, January 6, 2020.

• Anna Shiryaevskaya , Stephen Stapczynski , and Ann Koh, “The Era of Cheap Natural Gas Ends as Prices Surge by 1,000%,” Bloomberg, August 5, 2021.

• Nikos Tsafos, “How Will Natural Gas Fare in the Energy Transition?” Center for Strategic & International Studies, January 14, 2020.

• Steve Weissman, “Natural Gas as a Bridge Fuel: Measuring the Bridge,” (report, San Diego, CA: Center for Sustainable Energy, March 2016).

Grid Storage Batteries

• Rob Day, “Why Batteries May Not Be the Climate Change Savior We All Want Them To Be,” Forbes, August 31, 2018.

• Oliver Gorden, “Can flow batteries supercharge the energy transition?” Energy Monitor, June 22, 2022.

• “Grid energy storage,” Wikipedia, last modified August 2018.            

• Peter Fairley, “The United Arab Emirates’ Nuclear Power Gambit,” IEEE Spectrum, January 4, 2018.

• Peter Maloney, “An inside look at using energy storage to integrate renewable resources,” Utility Drive, September 18, 2017.

• Modernizing Minnesota’s Grid: An Economic Analysis of Energy Storage Opportunities, Minnesota Energy Storage Strategy Workshop final report, July 11, 2017.

• Julian Ryall, “Power of choice: The future of hydrogen-powered cars in Japan,” Japan Today, May 5, 2018.

• Mohammad Shahidehpour, “There’s more to a greener grid than turbines and transmission wires,” The Hill,  August 31, 2021.

• Julian Spector, “So, What Exactly Is Long-Duration Energy Storage,” Greentech Media, October 26, 2020.

• Andrea D. Steffen, “New Iron-Air Battery For Grid-Scale Energy Storage Is 1/10th The Cost of Lithium,” Intelligent Living, August 3, 2021.

• Cassandra Sweet, “Beyond Batteries: Other Ways to Capture and Store Energy,” The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2017.

• Utility-scale battery storage costs decreased nearly 70% between 2015 and 2018, U.S. Energy Information Administration, October 23, 2020.

• Robert Walton, “Energy storage poised to tackle grid challenges from rising EVs as mobile chargers bring new flexibility,” Utility Dive, May 18, 2020.

Distributed Non-Nuclear Electrical Systems

• Vahid Madani and Damir Novosel, “Getting a Grip on the Grid,” IEEE Spectrum, December 1, 2005.

• James Mandel Mark Dyson, “Why We Still Need To Discuss Grid Defection,” Rocky Mountain Institute, March 2, 2017.

• Market Integration of Distributed Energy Resources, International Renewable Energy Agency, 2019.

Resilience of Electricity Supply

• “Index of U.S. Energy Security Risk,” Global Energy Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2017.

• Amy Myers Jaffe, “The Electrification of Everything: What You Need to Know,” The Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2021.

• Lawrence Makovich and James Richards,“Ensuring Resilient and Efficient Electricity Generation,” IHS Markit, September 2017.

• Alison Silverstein, “The IHS Markit electric resiliency study – much less than meets the eye,” Utility Drive, December 6, 2017.

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