New York Times reports that for "the first time since the mid-1970's…a company has sought approval to build for a new nuclear power plant in the United States."
A reader —who works as an engineer in the nuclear power industry—had already sent me the article below, which reports on the revival of nuclear energy, and added the following comments:
At least 18 of the 25 sites for new nuclear power reactors are in the Old South. One of these sites is TVA's mothballed Belafonte station in northern Alabama. (After spending over $1.5 billion on it, TVA just restarted the long-shutdown Browns Ferry Unit 1 station in northern Alabama.)
This follows a pattern regarding all heavy industry in America: the east coast and west coast having rejected it for environmentalist and labor "rights" reasons and the Midwest having rejected it for labor "rights" reasons, all heavy industrial growth is now located in the Old South. This is where one can find all heavy logging (and furniture making), all ongoing major expansions of factory farming (and large factory slaughterhouses), all new automobile assembly plants—and, now, all new nuclear power plants.
Between 15 and 45 new nuclear power generating units are currently in the preliminary planning stages. Most of them will be in operation within 10 years. And none of these units will be small. Each will be in the 1300-1600 MW range.
To avoid problems with regulatory approval and with leftist legal interveners, at least 18 of the 25 sites are located in the Old South and 14 of the 25 sites are additions to sites that have existing, licensed, operating nuclear power plants.
Most interesting of all, however, is that at least 8 of sites do not have and never have had a licensed nuclear power plant. They are "green field" sites. They will be new nuclear power plants from the ground up.
I can confirm that these green field sites are not a pipe dream. Electric power producers are doing engineering studies to select these sites and they will build on them.
"Nuclear Industry Stirs with Plans for New Plants," AP via MSNBC, September 19 The current turmoil in credit markets is unlikely to derail plans by power companies to begin ordering the first new nuclear plants since cost overruns and public opposition virtually killed the industry three decades ago.
Nearly 30 years after the disastrous partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, Pa., several companies are planning to seek regulatory approval to build new plants, including Entergy Corp., Dominion Resources Inc., Exelon Corp. and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Constellation Energy Group has already filed a partial application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which expects up to seven requests this year and 28 by 2009. The first plants could be online by 2014 or 2015.
TVA's plans to expand its nuclear capacity have already begun, with the recent restart of a reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala.
The nation's largest public utility is also a partner in a consortium to resume construction at the unfinished Bellefonte plant site in Hollywood, Ala. It is also looking to finish a second reactor at the Watts Bar nuclear plant in Spring City, Tenn.
"I think investors are relatively positive on companies that are ... planning the next round of nuclear plants," said Barry Abramson, analyst and portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors Inc., in Rye, N.Y. "The numbers seem to work."
Utilities see in nuclear plants an opportunity to affordably meet demand for electricity, which the Energy Information Administration is forecasting will grow by 42 percent by 2030….
Weighing in nuclear power's favor is utilities' belief that the government will constrain or tax greenhouse gases, which would significantly increase operating costs at conventional plants. Nuclear plants emit greenhouse gasses, but far less than conventional plants.
Also pushing utilities toward nuclear power are new regulations that let companies apply for a single construction and operating license. In the past, the licenses were separate. "You might spend a few billion dollars, and then you're at risk of not getting an operating license," said NRC Chairman Dale Klein. Long Island's Shoreham Nuclear Power Station, for instance, was completed in 1984 for $6 billion but never opened due to community opposition.
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