Why are nuclear energy companies racing to make mini batteries?

11.01.2025 - 07:09 / euronews.com / Indrabati Lahiri

Nuclear energy has continued to make significant progress in the last few years, with the past year alone seeing considerable strides in advancing US nuclear deployment targets, historic reactor restarts and several new reactor deployments.

This has been further boosted by new climate targets, with several countries now on the hunt for better sources of renewable energy, in order to achieve their green goals. 

While nuclear development in Europe has been somewhat slower than in the US, a number of EU countries such as Romania, France and Bulgaria have still ramped up efforts to buy nuclear projects and increase investments. 

Nuclear reactors are used in a variety of industries such as oil production, power generation, manufacturing and desalination. They are also used in research facilities, nuclear power plants and for the propulsion of ships such as icebreakers and submarines. 

Several smaller consumer goods such as clocks and watches, smoke detectors and non-stick materials also use small amounts of radioactive material. 

In the last few years, many nuclear energy companies have been attempting to slash reactor sizes in order to be able to ramp up production of zero-carbon energy, as well as to help sectors reduce reliance on electric batteries. 

These smaller reactors are expected to be approximately the size of shipping containers and essentially function like smaller batteries. 

Microreactors have the ability to provide clean energy, while also being much more reliable than traditional generators, as they do not need to be refueled for years. They are also considered safer, with passive safety features, which heavily decrease the risk of radioactive releases. 

They are also much cheaper than bigger plants, while being modular, as they are factory-built and then installed where they are needed in modules. Microreactors can also be applied to a number of purposes and industries, such as water desalination, district heating, military bases and more. 

They do not require any workers or control room on site to operate or maintain them, allowing for more autonomous operations across sectors, while also decreasing labour costs. 

One of the main reasons for nuclear energy companies’ shift to microreactors at the moment is to replace traditional generators which use fossil fuels such as gas and diesel, in an effort to help with global decarbonisation efforts.

At present, these kinds of gas and diesel generators are used in a number of industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, construction, education, transportation and defence, among several others. They are also used for specific functions such as offshore oil and gas drilling platforms, as well as data centres. 

As such, the shift to nuclear