NEWS RELEASE

Independent Economic Study Confirms Future Competitiveness of New Nuclear Power Plants

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy today released an economic study which concludes that new nuclear power plants can be highly competitive with baseload, large-scale gas-fired and coal-fired electricity generation once the first few new nuclear plants have been built. The independent study was produced by the University of Chicago, under the auspices of Argonne National Laboratory. The following is a statement from Marvin Fertel, chief nuclear officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute.

“This independent study ratifies the emerging consensus that new nuclear power plants are competitive with other baseload sources of electricity once first-of-a-kind engineering costs are absorbed, construction experience gained, and other near-term financing issues resolved.

“Notably, the study concludes that even the first of the next series of new nuclear plants can approach competitiveness if limited federal financial policies are put in place that afford new nuclear plants the same type of government incentives available to other sources of electricity generation.

“Nuclear energy supplies one in every five U.S. homes and businesses with safe, clean, reliable electricity, and can play an even larger role in the future. As the study notes, ‘A successful transition from oil-based to hydrogen-based transportation could, in the long run, increase the demand for nuclear energy as a nonpolluting way to produce hydrogen.’”


The Nuclear Energy Institute is the nuclear energy industry’s policy organization. This news release and additional information about nuclear energy are available on NEI’s Internet site at http://www.nei.org.