Growing popularity could be undone by one accident

Nuclear energy is at an inflection point. Early exuberance about its potential was undercut by a series of devastating and dangerous accidents at Three Mile Island in in Pennsylvania in 1979, Chornobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011.

But now, thanks to new nuclear technology and the increasingly urgent need to fight climate change, nuclear energy is getting a second shot at becoming a prominent part of the global energy grid. That’s because nuclear energy generation does not create any of the dangerous greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

In a panel discussion at the United Nations on Tuesday, a collection of nuclear energy leaders from around the world gathered to discuss the scope of that renaissance and why it’s so critical that the industry work together to ensure gold-standard safety measures are adopted everywhere.

A nuclear accident anywhere has the potential to upset the most major momentum the nuclear industry has had in decades.

Future nuclear reactors and plants will almost certainly use different technology from the current standard, as both U.S. labs and private companies are funding research into more efficient reactors that are cheaper to build and generate less waste. Granholm mentioned, as an example, the advanced nuclear reactor Bill Gates‘ nuclear innovation company TerraPower is installing in a former coal town in Wyoming.

Demand for advanced nuclear reactors will be worth about $1 trillion globally, Granholm said, according to an estimate from the Department of Energy. That includes jobs building those reactors and all the associated supply chains that will need to ramp up to support that industry, Granholm said.

“Bottom line is spreading advanced nuclear energy is a priority for us,” Granholm said. “Of course, these technologies all have to begin and end with nuclear safety and security.”

The change in sentiment surrounding nuclear energy has happed quite quickly, said Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Until just a few years ago, nuclear would not be present, and perhaps not even welcome” at the annual COP conferences, which stands for “Conference of the Parties” and is an opportunity for country leaders to meet and discuss climate…