Nuclear power may be coming to the Permian Basin
Nuclear power is not usually mentioned in the same sentence as fossil fuels. However, a recent nonbinding letter of intent between Oklo Inc. and Diamondback Energy Inc. may marry the two technologies to better access an important source of energy in a more environmentally benign way, according to Bloomberg. Oklo is one of several startups developing micro nuclear reactors. Diamondback is an independent oil and gas company operating in the Permian Basin, which coversa an area including eastern New Mexico and west Texas.
Oil and gas exploration, drilling, fracking, and extraction takes a considerable amount of energy. Traditionally, fossil fuel drillers have used diesel generators to power their operations. More recently, in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, companies working in the Permian Basin have connected to the Texas power grid. However, the Texas grid has proven to be fragile during extreme weather events, when it’s very cold during the winter and when it’s very hot during the summer.
Oklo is offering a solution in the form of its micro nuclear reactors, currently under development. When the reactors become available toward the end of the decade, each will produce about 15 megawatts of electricity — tiny, compared to the one-gigawatt bemouths that traditionally provide nuclear power to the grid. The Oklo reactors will be even smaller than the 420-megawatt reactor that Dow is planning to power its manufacturing facility in Seadrift, Texas.
Oklo advertises its technology as a modern version of the fast breeder reactor that uses liquid metal rather than water as a coolant and is capable of using reprocessed nuclear waste as fuel. The technology answers the two main objections to nuclear power, the possibility of a meltdown similar to the one Three Mile Island suffered and the problem of nuclear waste disposal.
Nevertheless, Oklo’s main problem has been not so much developing the technology as satisfying the regulators. The company applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency for a license to build a prototype plant in March 2020. The NRC denied the application in January 2022, claiming that Oklo had not provided sufficient information on its design.
Oklo is attempting to recover by going public and seeking more customers before reapplying for a license with the NRC. Another problem the company faces is the fact that the only source of the particular type of nuclear fuel it needs is owned by Russia. Oklo is working with a company called Centrus Energy to produce the fuel in the United States. It is also working with the Department of Energy to convert existing nuclear waste into useable fuel.
The Oklo experience suggests that regulatory reform is in order. The NRC took nearly two years to deny the company a license to build its prototype plant. The new licensing process is likely to take about as long. The months and perhaps years of untangling regulatory red tape is time not spent building the capacity to generate clean, abundant energy.
The type of micro nuclear power plants that Oklo intends to offer, as well as the larger Small Modular Nuclear plants that companies like X-Energy uses, have several advantages over other types of energy generation technology.
The smaller plants will be easier and quicker to build than the one-gigawatt traditional reactors. They will have a smaller footprint than wind farms and solar arrays. Unlike wind and solar, they will run 24/7. They do not create greenhouse gasses or any other type of pollution. They can provide energy for oil and gas fields, manufacturing facilities, isolated communities far from the electric grid, AI data centers, and military bases.
Some climate change alarmists will be aghast at the idea of using nuclear power to take more oil and gas out of the ground. The inconvenient truth is that the world is not getting entirely off fossil fuels anytime soon. Carbon capture technology will mitigate any greenhouse gasses created by fossil fuel plants, however.
Climate change is not an existential crisis. It is, at worst, a long-term problem than can be addressed gradually so as not to disrupt technological civilization. Nuclear power provides the best existing technology to deal with climate change, not to mention provide more energy to meet the increasing demands of human civilization.
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and energy policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond, and, most recently, Why is America Going Back to the Moon? He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.
