The climate impact of the steel industry is astronomical, producing over 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, or 7% of humanity's annual carbon emissions. These vast pollutants come from the extreme energy demands of smelting ore and scrap, and as such, the industry is struggling to find a way to be more planet-friendly. But a US steelmaker, Nucor, is looking to team up with the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) nuclear power pioneer NuScale to create ultra-low emission nuclear steel mills! But how? And can this really help the steel industry reach net zero?
Smelting is the process of removing the metal you want, in this case, iron (which will later be turned to steel), from ore or scrap metal. This involves heating the ore/scrap past iron’s melting point in a furnace, which is 1800 °C (3270 °F). This molten metal is allowed to flow out and solidify to form pig iron.