A longtime Department of Energy hand, Kristen Ellis, is taking over as the acting head of regulatory and policy affairs for the Office of Environmental Management effective this weekend.

With the recently-announced departure of Randall Hendrickson, who is taking a job with private industry, Ellis will temporarily assume his responsibilities in addition to her current job running the regulatory, intergovernmental and stakeholder office, the No. 2 official at the DOE nuclear cleanup office said Thursday.

“Kristen has more than 21 years of experience at DOE,” Jeffrey Avery, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management, said in a “Dear Colleagues” email viewed by Exchange Monitor. The new assignment officially takes effect April 22.

While at DOE, Ellis has had stints as senior adviser for talent acquisition, chief of staff for the undersecretary of science and head of external affairs for the Office of Environmental Management, Avery said.

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In 2019, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System, which highlights the importance of nuclear power in decarbonizing the world’s energy sector. The paper notes:

“For advanced economies, nuclear has been the biggest low-carbon source of electricity for more than 30 years, and it has played an important role in the security of energy supplies in several countries. But it now faces an uncertain future as ageing plants begin to shut down in advanced economies, partly because of policies to phase them out but also under pressure from market conditions and regulatory barriers.”

Despite the importance of nuclear power as a low-carbon source of electricity, some countries have been phasing it out, citing risks such as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

To be clear, nuclear power will face headwinds as long as the public perceives that such risks still exist. That’s why it is important to highlight technology developments that can eliminate fears of the major nuclear disasters we have seen in the past.

Nuclear Technology Continues to Advance

The first generation of nuclear power plants were built in the 1950s and 1960s and were based on light water reactor technology. These reactors use water as a coolant and neutron moderator, and require enriched uranium as fuel.

Second-generation reactors, which were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, improved on the design of first-generation reactors but still use water as a coolant and require enriched uranium fuel.

Third-generation reactors, which began to be deployed in the 1990s and 2000s, incorporate passive safety features and other design improvements, but still use water as a coolant.

Fourth-generation nuclear power refers to a new class of advanced nuclear reactors that are designed to be safer, more efficient, and more sustainable than previous generations of nuclear power plants. These reactors incorporate advanced materials, designs, and cooling systems, and are intended to be more economical, flexible, and scalable than current nuclear technology.

Compared to earlier generations of nuclear power plants, fourth-generation reactors have several advantages.

First, they are much safer, with inherent safety features that prevent the release of radioactive materials in the event of an accident or malfunction. Second, they are more efficient, with higher conversion rates of nuclear fuel to electricity. Third, they are more sustainable, with lower waste production and the ability to use nuclear waste as fuel. Finally, they are more flexible and scalable, with the potential to be used in a variety of applications and settings, including remote locations and microgrids.

Terrestrial Energy Clears Important Milestone

Terrestrial Energy is a Canadian-based company working on fourth-generation nuclear technology. The company’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) is a Generation IV nuclear reactor that uses molten salt as a coolant and fuel carrier.

Molten salt reactors offer a number of advantages over traditional nuclear reactors, including the ability to operate at higher temperatures, which makes them more efficient and flexible; the ability to use a variety of fuel types, including thorium; and the potential for passive safety features that could make them less vulnerable to accidents.

Last week Terrestrial Energy announced that it has achieved a major regulatory milestone with the completion of Phase 2 of the pre-licensing Vendor Design Review (VDR) for its IMSR power plant. The VDR is a comprehensive review of the IMSR design conducted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), and its completion is a significant step forward in the commercial development of the IMSR.

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