The movie – Oppenheimer brings several things back into the foreground. Nuclear energy, spirit of entrepreneurship, and the ability of the US government to execute big projects by bringing the best minds together. J. Robert Oppenheimer played a pivotal role in the Manhattan Project that gave the US the competitive advantage for several decades. His work laid the foundations for nuclear physics and energy, shaping policies and research that continue to influence the industry today.
Fast forward to 2023. Despite Vogtle 3 coming online, the future of nuclear is bleak. We have ceded our competitive edge in nuclear energy and can only dream of making at the scale and pace that the Manhattan project set in the 1940s and 50s, let alone relying on a governmental enterprise.
Building and sustaining nuclear plants has been challenging across the western world with large upfront costs, supply chains, and project execution especially against alternatives like solar and wind. The US has ceded its global leadership position to Russia and China, as 100 power reactors with a total capacity of about 100,000 MWe are on order or planned, globally. Many see this as a weakening of the US position both as a technology leader as well as its ability to get big things done.
The IRA and the Chips Act have brought the US government at the center stage for pushing the American manufacturing agenda… but it will take more than a heavy doze of optimism to realize the outcomes. Until then we can only look at the personalities like Oppenheimer with a sense of wonder and nostalgia.
