Law & Lawyers

Arshad Mansoor is responsible for EPRI's portfolio of R&D and demonstration programs. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is a member of the board of The Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at UNC Charlotte.

Advanced nuclear technologies are closer to reality than you might think. To make a breakthrough, they'll need to provide significant advantages over current technologies, such as operating at low pressures and very high temperatures, and including inherent safety features.

Many supporters of nuclear technology have tried to correct significant challenges on assorted issues from the public, the media, and the scientific, regulatory and political sectors. But these efforts failed; they could not acknowledge the true illness and pursue the cure. This discussion focuses on what that illness is, how the industry has treated it, how to cure it, and one way to achieve a new political and regulatory environment that can save the patient.

We continue to rush towards a renewable future without considering overall system design, the costs that various renewable scenarios impose on grid operation, and the operation of the grid with these scenarios. When the externalities of climate change and ocean acidification create an overwhelming mandate to move away from fossil fuels, we have no choice but to go forward. Shouldn't we try to pick the cheapest path?