It was great to see the following headline recently, “The New Nukes,” in the Wall Street Journal. The article began with this statement…“For the first time in decades, popular opinion is on the (nuclear) industry's side. A majority of Americans think nuclear power, which emits virtually no carbon dioxide, is a safe and effective way to battle climate change, according to recent polls. At the same time, legislators are showing renewed interest in nuclear as they hunt for ways to slash greenhouse-gas emissions.”
Having a balanced article of this quality in a first class newspaper shows that public opinion is changing and we here in the U.S. are close to actually having new nuclear plants.
Just yesterday, I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation by Steve Ewald of Georgia Power on one of the four projects selected for DOE loan guarantees -- Vogtle 3 and 4, located in Augusta, Georgia. This project will be an AP1000 pressurized water reactor from Westinghouse with the Shaw Group as the main contractor.
From Ewald’s discussions, it was clear that there are two main reasons Georgia Power selected nuclear:
1) Baseload generation requirements have increased – clean coal is not available in the short term, so the lowest cost option is nuclear.
2) Reduction of carbon emissions – without clean coal, nuclear is the best choice for baseload generation.
Georgia Power is taking advantage of renewable power, for example switching the Mitchell Plant from coal to wood resulting in a 95MW plant. With the limited potential for wind and solar in Georgia, nuclear is the best option for meeting the increase in baseload demand up to 2025.
What we need now is action. The DOE should come out with its final selection of projects for loan guarantees. I recommend proceeding with two projects with competing technologies -- for example, one pressurized water reactor and one boiling water reactor.
Once a project actually breaks ground and an order is placed for an NSSS system, we can really start talking about THE NEW NUKES.
Here’s a link to the article -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409904574350342705855178.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments
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