Mapping How the United States Generates its Electricity

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 09/17/15

John Muyskens, et al., report that coal and natural gas are the most common sources for electricity in the country, but coal represents a declining share. The new Clean Power Plan seeks to accelerate that trend by requiring power plants to cut carbon pollution levels and rewarding states and companies that embrace clean sources of energy. There are 99 reactors at 63 nuclear electric plants in the U.S. They have generated 20 percent of the U.S. electricity this year. Five new nuclear plants are under construction following decades of pause after the initial push in the 1970s and 1980s driven by the first oil shock. Only South Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Hampshire get a plurality of their power from nuclear. Twenty states have no nuclear electricity generation at all.