At the end of the 1970s, the nuclear disaster in San Lidao stalled the expansion of nuclear power in the United States. Until 2008, the United States nuclear power industry for the first time increased, "nuclear power revival" of the formulation began to receive attention.
In 2008, the U.S. Congress approved an 18 billion U.S. federal guarantee loan for nuclear power plant construction. By the end of the year, 24 projects had submitted applications. The nuclear power industry expects the legislature to limit the use of coal to increase the competitiveness of nuclear power. Fortunately, also in this year, the prices of coal and natural gas commodities climbed along the way. Prior to this, nuclear power was not the first choice because of high costs. This time, the advantage of nuclear power was highlighted in the absence of competitors' price advantage.
However, the optimism of the nuclear power industry in the United States did not last long. So far, four nuclear reactors in the United States have been shut down, setting a record in the industry. Due to the prosperity of shale gas resources, natural gas prices have plummeted, and coal prices have also started to fall. The price reductions of these two types of nuclear energy, which mainly compete for energy, once again weakened the competitiveness of nuclear power, while domestic power demand declined due to the economic recession.
After Obama, who advocated energy transition, took office, nuclear power has not received much attention. In 2009, the United States received hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies for green energy. The biggest benefit was wind power, which left behind other competing energy sources including nuclear power. The Fukushima nuclear power accident in Japan in 2011 reminded the world and the United States once again how dangerous nuclear power is.
To make matters worse, the nuclear power industry resigned itself. In the past few months, three nuclear reactors in the United States have been shut down, two of them in California and one in Florida. The main reason for the closure was the leakage of radioactive material and the maintenance of nuclear reactors.
Faced with increasing anti-nuclear voices, hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance costs and cheaper alternative energy sources, operators decided to abandon maintenance and shut down nuclear reactors. A typical example is the decision by Dominion Generation, a US-based nuclear power operator, to shut down its Kewaunee nuclear reactor in Wisconsin in March. Dominion Generation decided to switch to more cost-effective coal and natural gas power generation, and decided to sell the Kewaunee reactor. As a result, it failed to find a buyer for more than a year and decided to shut down the reactor instead of continuing to lose money.
Dominion Generation is not an example. A year ago, Exelon, the largest commercial nuclear power plant operator in the United States, abandoned plans to build a 3,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Texas; Duke Energy announced in March that it would not build two nuclear power plants in North Carolina. Duke Energy also shut down its Crystal River nuclear reactor in Florida; in June, MidAmerican Energy decided not to follow up on its new Iowa nuclear plant program.
Of the 24 nuclear power plant construction applications filed in 2008, only 4 were approved for construction. In the highly competitive U.S. electricity market, natural gas is too cheap and the demand is not ups and downs, and the early investment in nuclear power is unattainable. These factors make it difficult for operators to decide to build new nuclear power plants.
Former Exelon CEO John Rowe asserted that the era of large-scale US nuclear power plant construction is over. He believes that operators are building nuclear power plants for economic benefit, but now, nuclear power plants cannot bring the expected economic returns to operators.
To maintain profitability, the sale price of nuclear power plants must be higher than US$0.12 per kilowatt-hour, while the price of gas-fired power plants can only be profitable at US$0.05-0.09 per kilowatt-hour. The construction period of nuclear reactors is at least 10 years, and the cost is usually tens of billions of dollars. The construction of gas-fired power plants takes only 2 years and the cost is generally lower than 1 billion US dollars.
With the reduction of new nuclear power stations, the average service life of US nuclear reactors will increase steadily. According to a Credit Suisse report, the annual operating cost of a nuclear power plant will increase by 5% year-on-year, unless these nuclear power plants receive permits to increase the number of years of service.
The pressure on nuclear power will increase with the increasing availability of more renewable energy. Thanks to the federal government tax credit, wind power producers do not need to worry about ups and downs in market prices when they get subsidies, and they can push wind power into the market without pressure.
For the shrinking nuclear power industry, there is still hope that the development of small modular reactors will be cheaper and the construction period will be shorter. Tennessee is currently planning to apply for a license to build four small reactors in 2015. Rowe believes that there is still a chance for nuclear power to recover in the last 20 years or so, but he does not dare to guarantee the votes. No one dares to play a ticket.
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