New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans at present to develop a brand new nuclear energy plant, the primary to be constructed within the state in a long time.
It’s the most recent sign that nuclear vitality might see a comeback within the US because of wide-ranging assist from some unusual bedfellows: the Trump administration purporting to hunt “vitality dominance”; tech firms in want of extra electrical energy for AI information facilities; and local weather hawks on board with nuclear vitality as a carbon pollution-free different to fossil fuels.
Nuclear vitality might see a comeback within the US because of wide-ranging assist from some unusual bedfellows
“The usage of superior nuclear know-how can present the State with a larger range of its vitality assets that can assist New York’s aim of a rising financial system with a dependable, zero-emission electrical energy system,” New York State Vitality Analysis and Growth Authority president and CEO Doreen Harris mentioned in a press release.
Hochul is directing the New York Energy Authority to assemble a minimum of one new website for nuclear vitality upstate with the capability to generate a minimum of 1 gigawatt of electrical energy (about half the capability of Hoover Dam energy plant).
The state is fascinated about advanced reactors which might be nonetheless below improvement, within the hopes of overcoming a number of the obstacles the nuclear vitality business has confronted over time. After a increase in nuclear reactors constructed within the Nineteen Seventies and ‘80s, the know-how struggled to compete as gas-fired energy crops and photo voltaic and wind farms grew to become cheaper sources of electrical energy. Fears about nuclear accidents just like the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island and conflicts over the place to retailer radioactive waste have additionally slowed down the business.
The Vogtle energy plant in Georgia has turn into an instance of the sorts of issues which have plagued nuclear energy tasks; it’s the positioning of the primary all-new reactors constructed within the US in additional than three decades. After development began in 2009, Vogtle models 3 and 4 lastly came online in 2023 and 2024, roughly $17 billion over price range.
Now, the average age of a nuclear reactor within the US is 42 years outdated, with many retiring not too long ago or scheduled to quickly shutter. That development is beginning to reverse, with assist from Massive Tech and authorities incentives. Google and Amazon have each inked agreements to assist the event of next-generation nuclear reactors. Meta signed a deal this month to assist hold a reactor constructed within the Nineteen Eighties alive for one more 20 years. And Microsoft introduced a power purchase agreement final 12 months that’s speculated to result in the restart of 1 reactor at Three Mile Island.