<< Previous

What Is Driving Interest in New Nuclear Plants?
Several factors are contributing to the growing interest in new nuclear power plants: rising electricity demand, clean-air concerns, the performance and reliability of existing plants, and the tight supply—and price volatility—of natural gas. These factors, along with excellent nuclear plant safety and reliability, have contributed to increasing public and policymaker support for nuclear energy.

• Electricity Demand. DOE projects that the United States will need 30 percent more electricity by 2030.
• Clean Air. Concern about air pollution is leading to increasingly tight restrictions on emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury. The federal government also may decide to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas. Nuclear energy accounts for nearly three-quarters of the U.S. electric generation with none of these emissions.
• Excellent Performance. The nation’s 104 nuclear power plants operate at high levels of safety, reliability and affordability. Results from the NRC’s reactor oversight process, posted on the agency’s Web site, show consistently high safety performance across the industry. The average capacity factor for nuclear plants—a measure of reliability—has remained about 90 percent since 2000. And nuclear plants are the lowest-cost electricity providers, producing electricity for about 1.7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
• Price Volatility. Natural gas fuels nearly all the electric generating capacity built in the past 10 years. The nation has placed unsustainable demand on the natural gas supply, and that means continuing volatility in prices.
• Support for Nuclear Energy. A national survey conducted in October 2007 found a high level of support among the public for nuclear energy, with 64 percent saying they favor it as one way to produce electricity. Of those who had heard about the clean-air role of emission-free nuclear energy, 69 percent said they favor its use. Support among policymakers also is very high, as evidenced by passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
  

The United States needs a diversified portfolio of electricity sources that includes nuclear energy, renewables (wind, solar and biomass), and clean-coal and natural gas-fired generation. The nuclear energy industry and the federal government are working to ensure that electric companies will have the option of building new nuclear reactors when they need large new power plants.

To learn the status of new-plant activities in the United States, see the “New Nuclear Plant Status” table on the NEI Web site.