Much of the current discussion about nuclear power focuses on advanced technologies, from the potential for nuclear fusion to the development of various designs for small, modular reactors.<br>But if we ask what new nuclear reactors have been built recently in North America and are up and running? The answer is the two reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia, which use Westinghouse Electric&#x27;s AP1000 design.<br>In this episode, Dan Testa interviews Grant Isaac, president and COO of Cameco Corp., a uranium mining and production company that is co-owner of Westinghouse Electric. Isaac says the global nuclear industry is making significant improvements in cost and execution when it comes to building new projects and refurbishing existing reactors – and that the pieces are lining up in the US for utilities to invest in new, large nuclear reactors using Westinghouse&#x27;s AP1000 design.

Cameco makes the case for large nuclear reactors

Energy Evolution

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Energy Evolution

## Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of Energy Evolution, the podcast where we hear from experts and executives about the energy transition. I'm Dan Testa. For this week's episode, I interviewed Grant Isaac. He's the President and Chief Operating Officer of Cameco, a corporation

headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada. Cameco is one of the largest miners and refiners in the world of uranium, a fuel for nuclear reactors, and it co-owns Westinghouse Electric, which develops licenses and helps build nuclear reactors. Westinghouse also provides services like fuel and engineering to existing nuclear reactors. So much of the current discussion about nuclear power focuses on quote-unquote advanced nuclear, and that's a term that can

encompass a wide range of emerging technologies, from the potential for nuclear fusion to the development of various designs for small modular reactors or SMRs. Many SMR developers aim to address the high cost and construction difficulties of building large light water reactors by building smaller reactors with different designs that can be largely assembled from prefabricated components. Ontario Power Generation is currently building the first of four 300-megawatt SMRs at its Darlington

facility, with that first unit expected to connect to the grid in 2030. Regular listeners of this podcast will recall we spoke with the CEO of Ontario Power Generation about that project back in March. But if we ask what new nuclear reactors have been built recently in North America and are up and running right now, the answer is the two reactors at the Vogel plant in Georgia, and those reactors used

Westinghouse's AP1000 design. Each of those reactors has a capacity of roughly 1,100 megawatts, with Vogel Unit 3 coming online in 2023, and Unit 4 in April of the following year. Critics of Vogel point out accurately that these two reactors took years longer to build than was originally scheduled, and cost many billions over the original budget. Westinghouse actually went bankrupt in 2017 due to cost overruns

at Vogel and the VC Summer plant in South Carolina. Now despite those setbacks, there's a case to be made for investing in more AP1000 reactors. They're licensed, they're operating, and as we'll hear from Grant Isaac, an impressive learning curve for building them took place between the construction of Vogel Unit 3 and then Unit 4. There's also significant federal support in the U.S. for building

more nuclear capacity right now. In May, speaking on Cameco's first quarter earnings call, Grant Isaac described an effort underway at the U.S. Department of Energy. This effort would provide billions of dollars in financing to order large, long-lead components to build up to 10 future AP1000 nuclear reactors. This proposed loan guarantee, according to reporting by S&P Global Energy Plats, would involve establishing

five special purpose entities that each secure a s...

Cameco makes the case for large nuclear reactors

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

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Cameco makes the case for large nuclear reactors

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.