atw 2018-10

atw Vol. 63 (2018) | Issue 10 ı October
502
INSIDE NUCLEAR WITH NUCNET
US Says Nuclear is Vital to National Security
as DOE Works on Rescue Proposals
In the face of rising electricity demand, US energy secretary Rick Perry has confirmed that work is underway
on a plan to preserve some of the nation’s key nuclear power plants.
The US Department of Energy (DOE), he said,
is studying ways to bail out nuclear (and coal)
facilities, including potentially by mandating grid operators
to purchase power from them.
Supporters say it’s a sensible move because the nation’s
power grid cannot rely solely on natural gas, wind, and
solar. Opponents of the nuclear industry say nuclear power
that was once advertised as being “too cheap to meter” has
become too costly for electric utilities to buy.
The US has the largest number of nuclear plants in the
world – 99 in commercial operation providing 20 % of its
electricity generation – but its industry leadership is
declining as efforts to build a new generation of reactors
have been plagued by problems, and aging plants have
been retired or closed in the face of economic, market, and
financial pressures.
The situation, exacerbated by robust competition in
the new-build sector from China and Russia, has seen the
nuclear industry and its supporters call on the government
to enact legislation that would support the continued
operation of nuclear plants.
But the main reason behind nuclear’s problems in
the US, says Dr J. Winston Porter, a national energy and
environmental consultant and former assistant administrator
at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a
shale revolution that has produced a rapid supply of
inexpensive and relatively clean natural gas.
“Because of this we are becoming increasingly
dependent on it for most electricity production,” he said.
“Consequently, we risk losing the energy diversity that has
long served as a bulwark of the US energy system.
“The problem may be an eventual lack of robust competition.
One can even ask, ‘What will be the cost of natural
gas when it is our only major source of electric power?’”
Mr Perry said bailing out nuclear power plants is as important
to national security as keeping the military strong,
and that the cost to Americans should not be an issue.
“You cannot put a dollar figure on the cost to keep
America free,” he told reporters at a press conference in
Washington, when asked about the administration’s effort
to extend the lives of the facilities. When asked about the
cost of a potential bailout, he said he did not yet know.
The nuclear industry has long argued that electricity
markets should be reformed to recognise the ability of
traditional baseload generation with onsite fuel supplies –
including nuclear power plants – to provide grid resiliency
during extreme events like hurricanes or extreme winter
weather.
A report by the Washington-based think-tank the
Atlantic Council argued that the US nuclear energy industry
is facing a crisis that the Trump administration must
immediately address as a core part of its “all of the above”
energy strategy that is intended to herald an era of
American energy dominance.
The good news is that the Trump administration
recognises the problem, supports nuclear energy, and sees
new generation nuclear technology such as small modular
reactors as a key part of its energy strategy.
According to promoters of SMRs, these scaled-down
reactors could solve the challenges faced by nuclear power.
SMR developers promise lowered costs, decreased
production of radioactive waste, reduction or elimination
of the risk of severe accidents, and no contribution to
nuclear proliferation. Dozens of companies – both in the
US and the rest of the world – are developing their own
SMR designs, and many have received funding from
wealthy private investors and the DOE.
The need for a new direction is evident. Six US nuclear
plants have been shut down permanently since 2013 and
12 more are slated to retire over the next seven years. That
means a total of 18 shutdowns that will remove more than
15.8 GW of generation from the grid, or 15% of existing
nuclear capacity.
Only two nuclear plants, the Vogtle-3 and -4 Westinghouse
AP1000 units in Georgia, are under construction.
Construction of the Summer-3 and -4 AP1000 plants in
South Carolina was abandoned in August 2017 following
analysis of schedule and cost data from Westinghouse and
subcontractor Fluor Corporation. South Carolina Electric &
Gas owned 55 % of the project and state-owned utility
Santee Cooper the remaining 45%.
The Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI),
which represents the nuclear industry in the US, said the
US electricity grid is enduring “unprecedented tumult and
challenge” because of the loss of thousands and thousands
of megawatts of carbon-free, fuel-secure generation that
nuclear plants represent. Closing nuclear plants makes
electricity prices go up and is putting emissions reduction
targets hopelessly out of reach, NEI president and chief
executive officer Maria Korsnick said.
The Atlantic Council said the decline of the nuclear
power industry in the US is “an important policy
problem” that is not receiving the attention it deserves.
The report was made public in March 2018, in the
same week that Ohio-based utility FirstEnergy announced
plans to permanently shut down its three nuclear power
stations – Davis-Besse, Perry and Beaver Valley – within
the next three years without some kind of state or
federal relief.
To save financially-ailing nuclear plants, state legislatures
in Illinois and New York last year approved subsidies
to keep nuclear plants operating after utilities made
appeals about protecting consumers and jobs.
Other proposed bailouts of nuclear plants have stalled
in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio and
Pennsylvania. In Minnesota, the state legislature is considering
a bill that would help Xcel Energy, owner and
operator of the Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear
stations, plan for the high costs of maintaining old nuclear
power plants. The proposed legislation would give utilities
earlier notice about how much money they could recover
for costly work, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
The NEI confirmed that Mr Trump had ordered Mr Perry
to “prepare immediate steps” to stop premature closures of
“fuel-secure” nuclear and coal power plants and prevent
further risks to national security and grid resilience.
Inside Nuclear with NucNet
US Says Nuclear is Vital to National Security as DOE Works on Rescue Proposals ı October