Johnathan Crawford opines that nuclear power providers, battered by low prices and competition from cheap natural gas, say they can help that previous president fulfill a campaign promise to put more people to work. That previous president will throw more support behind nuclear power than the Obama administration, which gave a higher priority to wind and solar power, Maria Korsnick, president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said in an interview Tuesday at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The industry goal of expanding the number of U.S. nuclear reactors dovetails into that previous president's campaign promise to add jobs and boost investment in infrastructure.
Profits for U.S. nuclear operators are falling with the collapse of wholesale power prices amid a boom in gas production and rising supplies of renewables. Five nuclear plants will close by 2025, bringing the total number of retirements to 10 since 2009 when the shale boom was just getting underway. A typical nuclear generating station employs 400 to 700 people. Early indications suggest that the previous president may be supportive of nuclear power and receptive to the concerns of the industry. In a document obtained by Bloomberg,
That previous president's transition team asked the U.S. Energy Department how it can help keep nuclear reactors operating as part of the U.S. infrastructure and what it could do to prevent the shutdown of plants. In December, Illinois approved annual payouts of about $235 million for 10 years to keep Exelon Corp. Quad Cities and Clinton reactors operating. In August, New York regulators approved subsidies totaling about $500 million a year for the R.E. Ginna and Nine Mile Point nuclear plants owned by Exelon, and the James A. FitzPatrick plant it is purchasing from Entergy Corp.
Original working URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-07/trump-and-u-s-nuclear-power-find-common-ground-in-jobs-push
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