New York Governor Kathy Hochul introduced plans at present to develop a brand new nuclear energy plant, the primary to be constructed within the state in a long time.
It’s the most recent sign that nuclear vitality may see a comeback within the US because of wide-ranging help from some unusual bedfellows: the Trump administration purporting to hunt “vitality dominance”; tech firms in want of extra electrical energy for AI information facilities; and local weather hawks on board with nuclear vitality as a carbon pollution-free various to fossil fuels.
Nuclear vitality may see a comeback within the US because of wide-ranging help from some unusual bedfellows
“The usage of superior nuclear expertise can present the State with a larger range of its vitality sources that can help New York’s aim of a rising financial system with a dependable, zero-emission electrical energy system,” New York State Power Analysis and Growth Authority president and CEO Doreen Harris stated in a press launch.
Hochul is directing the New York Energy Authority to assemble not less than one new web site for nuclear vitality upstate with the capability to generate not less than 1 gigawatt of electrical energy (about half the capability of Hoover Dam energy plant).
The state is desirous about superior reactors which can be nonetheless below improvement, within the hopes of overcoming a number of the obstacles the nuclear vitality trade has confronted over time. After a increase in nuclear reactors constructed within the Seventies and ‘80s, the expertise struggled to compete as gas-fired energy vegetation and photo voltaic and wind farms turned cheaper sources of electrical energy. Fears about nuclear accidents just like the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island and conflicts over the place to retailer radioactive waste have additionally slowed down the trade.
The Vogtle energy plant in Georgia has turn into an instance of the sorts of issues which have plagued nuclear energy tasks; it’s the positioning of the primary all-new reactors constructed within the US in additional than three a long time. After development began in 2009, Vogtle models 3 and 4 lastly got here on-line in 2023 and 2024, roughly $17 billion over funds.
Now, the typical age of a nuclear reactor within the US is 42 years previous, with many retiring lately or scheduled to quickly shutter. That pattern is beginning to reverse, with assist from Large Tech and authorities incentives. Google and Amazon have each inked agreements to help the event of next-generation nuclear reactors. Meta signed a deal this month to assist preserve a reactor constructed within the Eighties alive for one more 20 years. And Microsoft introduced an influence buy settlement final yr that’s presupposed to result in the restart of 1 reactor at Three Mile Island.
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