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Airbnb founder and a Brazilian Model Found a Philanthropic Effort to Scale Nuclear Energy.
Nuclear Scaling Initiative is launchedExcerpts:
A philanthropic gift recently established the Nuclear Scaling Initiative (NSI)—a collaborative effort to spur a new nuclear energy ecosystem to increase the rate of reactor deployment by 10 times by the 2030s.
A gift of $5 million to the NSI will support a host of resources and work to socialize first-of-a-kind technologies with governments, stakeholders, and opinion leaders needed to bring nuclear energy facilities to market. A second $5 million matching fund will incentivize additional philanthropic support from individuals and institutional donors.
The funding comes from Joe Gebbia, cofounder of Airbnb, and Isabelle Boemeke, a Brazilian fashion model, social media influencer, and executive director of advocacy organization Save Clean Energy.
Quotable: “Nuclear electricity is one of the safest forms of energy on the planet. Funding NSI kickstarts the first major philanthropic effort to develop more of this consistent carbon-free energy,” Gebbia said.
“Nuclear electricity is essential to address climate change end energy inequality, and [to] boost energy security,” Boemeke said. “It’s also been an overlooked technology and in need of catalytic philanthropic support to realize its full potential. We’re proud to do our part in supporting these trusted partners in their work to scale nuclear electricity around the world, and we challenge our peers in the philanthropic community to join us in this effort...”
A gift of $5 million to the NSI will support a host of resources and work to socialize first-of-a-kind technologies with governments, stakeholders, and opinion leaders needed to bring nuclear energy facilities to market. A second $5 million matching fund will incentivize additional philanthropic support from individuals and institutional donors.
The funding comes from Joe Gebbia, cofounder of Airbnb, and Isabelle Boemeke, a Brazilian fashion model, social media influencer, and executive director of advocacy organization Save Clean Energy.
Quotable: “Nuclear electricity is one of the safest forms of energy on the planet. Funding NSI kickstarts the first major philanthropic effort to develop more of this consistent carbon-free energy,” Gebbia said.
“Nuclear electricity is essential to address climate change end energy inequality, and [to] boost energy security,” Boemeke said. “It’s also been an overlooked technology and in need of catalytic philanthropic support to realize its full potential. We’re proud to do our part in supporting these trusted partners in their work to scale nuclear electricity around the world, and we challenge our peers in the philanthropic community to join us in this effort...”
Ms. Boemeke is also a person in a class of people about whom I know very little, "an influencer."
She recently apparently gave a "TED talk." It can be accessed here: The world’s first (but hopefully not last) nuclear influencer I don't have time to watch it, nor do I have to be convinced to support nuclear energy, such support being, in these times of extreme global heating, an ethical imperative.
The amount of money offered is fairly trivial, all the publicity may not be so; I don't know.
The goal is in, effectively, "percent talk," to raise the rate of nuclear deployment by a factor of 10, or 1000%.
Currently there are 67 nuclear reactors under construction worldwide; with China dominating with 33,353 MW of nominal power under construction. For China, this would represent upon completion, just shy of an Exajoules (EJ) of electrical energy, assuming 90% capacity utilization which is common for nuclear reactors, the most reliable energy devices in the world. Assuming these are all Rankine cycle reactors, this translates into about 2.9 EJ of primary energy, this on a planet consuming more than 630 EJ/year, dominated by dangerous fossil fuels. Worldwide, 68,740 MWe are under construction, translating, similarly to 2.0 EJ of electricity, and 5.8 EJ of primary energy, again on a Rankine basis.
The aggressive goal of the initiative, were it to be realized - which seems unlikely - would have 670 reactors under construction, amounting to roughly 60 EJ of primary energy capacity. This would be significant, but hardly enough to stop the use of dangerous fossil fuels, but ten years at such a level would definitely put the gas and coal industry out of business, which is why the fossil fuel industry funds so many antinuclear efforts, these days with increasingly sophisticated marketing tactics, hyping fossil fuel entrenching "bait and switch" hydrogen, battery and reactionary so called "renewable energy" schemes that have not worked, are not working and will not work to address the release of deadly fossil fuel waste, most notably, carbon dioxide.
There were 8 reactors whose construction were initiated in 2024 thus far, 7 in China, one in Russia. 80 reactor starts per year would require a huge highly trained nuclear workforce.
Again, though, to face reality, this small effort to create an NSI, a "Nuclear Scaling Initiative" while certainly welcome, is not likely to achieve its goals, as noble as they are.