Paul Voosen reports that with nuclear plants being built to last and to be dependable while emitting few greenhouse gases, the U.S. fleet of nuclear power plants will likely run for another 50 or even 70 years before it is retired - long past the 40-year life span planned decades ago - according to industry executives, regulators and nuclear scientists. This is the benefit of the high cost.
With nuclear providing 24/7 electricity that will become more cost-effective if a price is placed on heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, utilities have found it is now viable to replace turbines or lids that have been worn down by radiation exposure or wear. Many engineers realized that nearly any plant parts, most of which were not designed to be replaced, can be swapped out.
We think we can replace almost every component in a nuclear power plant, said Jan van der Lee, director of the Materials Ageing Institute (MAI), a nuclear research facility inaugurated this week in France and run by the state-owned nuclear giant EDF.
Until recently, such research has not been a priority. But within the past few years, the Department of Energy began a program looking at long-term operations, as it is known in the industry. And provisions in the Senate climate bill call for DOE to increase these investigations in the hope of extending plant lives substantially beyond the first license extension period.
DOE collaborates in this research with the France MAI and the U.S.-based Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a nonprofit funded by many nuclear utilities. U.S. leadership in the field is natural, given the sheer age of America's reactors.
The oldest commercial plants in the United States reached their 40th anniversary this year, and the average plant has operated for 30 years. Already, more than half of the U.S. 100 reactors have seen their initial licenses extended for an additional two decades. Nearly all the U.S.plants are expected to continue.
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