Two items of note for supporters of nuclear power this week.
First, the more concrete of the two, Unit 4 of the Vogtle nuclear project is generating electricity and has connected to the electrical grid. This is the beginning of the final phase for full operation later this year. Operators will be raising reactor power while performing tests at various levels, eventually reaching 100 percent.
The new testing comes just a couple weeks after operators actually started the nuclear reaction inside the reactor, generating the heat to produce steam. Vogtle 4 is on track to enter commercial operation about a year after Vogtle Unit 3, which began full operation last July. Each of the new units can produce enough power for 500,000 homes and businesses. Georgia Power has about 2.7 million customers, when combined with Vogtle co-owners Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities, the million customers that can be supplied through Vogtle are about a third of the entire customer base.
Second, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6544, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act. Passing overwhelmingly in the House by a vote of 365-36, the bipartisan bill aims to incentivize nuclear energy production in the U.S. Prior to the Plant Vogtle projects, the last new nuclear reactor project to start in the United States was Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee in 1973. And that work was suspended in 1995 before restarting in 2007 and going online in 2016. Despite this, the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power, approximately 30 percent of the world’s nuclear electricity. However, despite that, nuclear still only makes up 18 percent of the country’s total usage.
The economics of nuclear power are difficult. The projects require massive up-front investment and are boosted by higher costs of other energy sources. Relatively low oil and gas prices make the financing of nuclear more difficult. Additionally, according to the World Nuclear Association, with the several states have liberalized their wholesale electricity markets, that also makes financing the capital-intensive nuclear projects more difficult.
The bill from the House aims to lower the costs on the administrative side and shortening the timeline when those investments must be carried before power is actually created (Georgia Power customers were paying for the Vogtle updates for some 15 years before any electricity came out).
“An all-of-the-above strategy is critical to reclaiming American energy dominance, and as the nation’s largest source of clean energy, nuclear has a pivotal role to play,” said Rep. Rick Allen (R- GA 12). “With the first two new nuclear reactors built in over three decades in the United States located at Plant Vogtle in my district, Georgia-12 is leading our nation’s nuclear future. But as we saw through the construction process, nuclear projects in the U.S. are often bogged down by burdensome licensing and permitting processes that result in unnecessary delays and cost overruns. By modernizing the inefficient procedures that hamper our nuclear energy expansion, we can fully embrace the reliability of clean, 24/7 nuclear energy.”
