World Nuclear Association Attends World Economic Forum Senior Executive Meeting to accelerate nuclear energy deployment

Sama Bilbao y León, Director General of World Nuclear Association, recently spoke at a World Economic Forum senior executive meeting on 7 November on the topic of accelerated nuclear funding, alongside Kirsty Gogan, Co-CEO, Terra Praxis and Massimo Marino, Chief Education and Academic Relations Officer, Newcleo. The session was moderated by Julian Blamey, Managing Director, Accenture.

The panel session and broader meeting discussion addressed issues concerning finance and investment in nuclear projects, as well as the need to grow the global nuclear supply chain and workforce. This was all set in the context of a world where demand for clean energy is on an upward trajectory, driven by increasing electrification, dramatic growth in AI and emerging market development. Nuclear energy is an essential technology for countries and companies as they transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources.

At the COP28 meeting held in December 2023 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 22 countries committed to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050. Since then, they have been joined by 14 major banks, over 130 companies and six additional countries at COP29. Many international organizations, such as the World Economic Forum are now recognizing that expanding nuclear energy capacity is essential to supporting the clean energy transition and reaching net-zero goals. They are now starting to ask questions on the type, size and share of the mix for nuclear technology, as well as implement more practical actions and strategies needed to accelerate nuclear deployment.

Small modular reactors (SMRs) have attracted interest from non-nuclear stakeholders, driving much of the discussion on new nuclear deployment. However, it should be highlighted that nuclear energy already provides about a quarter of clean electricity today, and expanding nuclear capacity will require new large-scale reactors as well operating lifetime extensions of existing reactors. SMRs can play a part in the expansion of the nuclear energy sector due to their large variety of applications, potential end users and new markets. Part of the appeal of SMRs is that they could be built on former coal plants, or co-located with refineries or steel, chemical or aluminum plants, to directly replace fossil fuels by supplying heat, power, or steam.

The focus on nuclear at the World Economic Forum meeting was coupled with the release of its white paper developed in collaboration with Accenture, A Collaborative Framework for Accelerating Advanced Nuclear and Small Modular Reactor Deployment. The activity brought together stakeholders across the nuclear value chain – including experts from large energy-consuming industries, financiers, reactor vendors, supply chain businesses, utilities, government organizations, NGOs and other non-profit organizations as well as academia – to develop a framework to align stakeholders on key actions and strategies to accelerate deployment of SMRs and other advanced nuclear technologies.