Nuclear Power Going Dark in New England

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

Date posted: 10/21/15

Derrick Freeman reports that the U.S. commercial nuclear fleet will shrink by one more plant, as Entergy Corp. recently announced its plans to close the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass. While some environmental and anti-nuclear activists are no doubt popping corks, it is bad news from a climate perspective. What is happening in energy markets that is tilting the playing field against nuclear power? For the last few years, nuclear industry leaders have warned that decreasing electricity demand, low natural gas prices, and price regulation are making it uneconomical to keep small nuclear plants (600 megawatts or less) up and running. Specifically, they complain that regulators do not allow them to reap the full value of the services nuclear energy brings to consumers - reliability, efficiency and grid stability which permits the smoother integration of renewable energy. That makes it difficult to defray operations and maintenance costs, which have risen because of new regulations imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the Japan Fukushima crisis created by tsunamis offshore. The economic viability of nuclear power plants is also threatened by state energy policies that subsidize renewable energy projects. For example, Entergy cited a Massachusetts proposal that would require utilities to buy hydro-electric power from Canada at above-market prices. The amount of electricity they would be required to buy would amount to about one-third of the state electricity demand. Massachusetts efforts to promote renewable energy seem to be working at cross-purposes with its environmental goals. Since renewables are not ready to replace nuclear, the gap is increasingly being filled by natural gas, which means higher carbon emissions. Read on, good read.