With demand for electricity rising across the United States, nuclear power advocates they want to restart some of the 13 reactors closed in the last decade. The return to old, closed nuclear plants is the result of the surge in electricity demand for data centers, electric cars, and new factories that is just now getting going.
According to analysts, only a few of them have a real chance of being restarted. They estimate that three of them might be able to be restarted. All the rest are damaged or being dismantled, piece by piece.
Possible reactivation of three out of thirteen power plants
As Bloomberg reports, work is already underway to restart closed reactor in Michiganwhich is to be launched by the end of next year. The owners of two other power plants, in Iowa and Pennsylvaniaare considering following suit. The list of potential plants ready to restart ends with these three items.
Some of the remaining ten power plants were closed due to damagesuch as San Onofre, California or Crystal River, Florida. Others are already being dismantled, including Vermont Yankee and Indian Point near New York.
Other facilities, even if intact, are unfit to operate because their owners have failed to perform expensive maintenance work necessary to keep the reactors in sufficiently good condition.
Reactivating old power plants will be expensive
Any reopening is likely to be costly. The U.S. Department of Energy has conditionally approved $1.5 billion to help restart Michigan’s Palisades nuclear power plant, and the state has committed another $300 million.
The plan to restart these plants really highlights the need to add new stable energy, especially clean energy, says Adam Stein, director of nuclear energy innovation at the Breakthrough Institute, a research center in Oakland, California.
The energetic dinosaurs are back
Just a few years ago, nuclear power plants were considered economic dinosaurs. Nukes had to compete with cheap natural gas and renewable energy sources, which at times flooded the grid with so much electricity that consumer prices fell below zero.
But now, U.S. electricity demand is growing rapidly for the first time in a generation. Proponents see nuclear power, which is available around the clock and emits no greenhouse gases, as ideal for powering banks computers in data centers whose energy demands can rival those of small towns.
Besides Michigan, maybe Iowa and Pennsylvania
Chris Gadomski, chief nuclear analyst at BloombergNEF, says only two other plants could potentially return to service.
One is at the site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident, which occurred on March 28, 1979, when a partial core meltdown occurred in one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. Three Mile Island, Pennsylvaniabelonging to Constellation Energy Corp. The second one is a power plant Duane Arnold of NextEra Energy Inc. on the Iowa prairies. Both companies have said they are willing to restore the plants, but only under certain conditions. Neither has made any commitments.
