Nuclear power in the United States

As of 2007 in the United States, there are 104 (69 pressurized water reactors and 35 boiling water reactors) commercial nuclear generating units licensed to operate, producing a total of 97,400 megawatts (electric), which is approximately 20% of the nation's total electric energy consumption. The United States is the world's largest supplier of commercial nuclear power.

History

After the growth of nuclear power in the 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission anticipated that more than 1,000 reactors would be operating in the United States by 2000. But by the end of the 1970s, it became clear that nuclear power would not grow nearly so dramatically, and more than 120 reactor orders were ultimately cancelled.¹

A large number of plants have recently received 20-year extensions to their licensed lifetimes.

Several US nuclear power plants closed well before their design lifetimes, including Rancho Seco in 1989 in California, San Onofre Unit 1 in 1992 in California (units 2 and 3 are still operating), Zion in 1998 in Illinois and Trojan in 1992 in Oregon. Humboldt Bay in California closed in 1976, 13 years after geologists discovered it was built on a fault (the Little Salmon Fault). Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant never operated commercially as an authorized Emergency Evacuation Plan could not be agreed on due to the political climate after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents.

Resurgence

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in nuclear power in the US. This has been facilitated in part by the federal government with the Nuclear Power 2010 Program, which coordinates efforts for building new nuclear power plants,³ and the Energy Policy Act which makes provisions for nuclear and oil industries.⁴⁵

As of April 2008, the NRC is expecting 23 COL applications for a total of 34 new plants.⁶

As of 2005, no nuclear plant had been ordered without subsequent cancellation for over twenty years. However, on September 22, 2005 it was announced that two sites had been selected to receive new power reactors (exclusive of the new power reactor scheduled for Idaho National Laboratory) and two other utilities have plans for new reactors.⁷ There has also been an application for an early site permit at Exelon's Clinton Nuclear in Clinton, Illinois to install another reactor as well as a reactor restart at the Tennessee Valley Authority Browns Ferry nuclear station.⁸

In April 2008 Southern Company signed an engineering and procurement contract with Westinghouse and Shaw Group for two AP1000s to be built at Vogtle in Georgia.¹¹ This is the first construction contract for a new nuclear power plant in the US to be signed since 1978.

However, MidAmerican Energy Company decided to "end its pursuit of a nuclear power plant in Payette County, Idaho."¹² MidAmerican cited cost as the primary factor in their decision.

Safety

Regulation

Regulation of nuclear power plants in the United States is done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which divides the nation into 4 administrative divisions.

Fuel Cycle

Uranium Mining

The United States has the 4th greatest uranium reserves in the world. Domestic production increased until 1980, after which it declined sharply due to low uranium prices. In 2001 the United States mined only 5% of the uranium consumed by its nuclear power plants. The remainder was imported, principally from Canada and Australia.¹⁶ After 2001, however, uranium prices steadily increased, which prompted increased production and revived mines.

Uranium enrichment

The United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) performs all enrichment activities for U.S. commercial nuclear plants, using 11.3 million SWUs per year at its Paducah, Kentucky site. The USEC plant still uses gaseous diffusion enrichment, which has now been proved to be inferior to centrifuge enrichment. However, the capital cost of such a plant is so high that the plant will go through a few more years of operation before being replaced by a modern centrifuge plant.

Currently, demonstration activities are underway at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a future centrifugal enrichment plant. The new plant will be called the American Centrifuge Plant, which has an estimate cost of 2.3 billion USD.¹⁷

Reprocessing

US policy forbid nuclear reprocessing inside the country from 1976 to 1981. Since the GNEP was proposed, several reprocessing proposals have been made.

Disposal

In the United States, all power produced by nuclear energy pays a tax of 0.1 cents per kWh sold, in exchange for which the United States government takes responsibility for the high level nuclear waste. This tax has been collected since the beginning of the industry, but action by the government towards creation of a national geological repository was not taken until the 1990s and 2000s since all spent fuel is immediately stored in the spent fuel pools on site.

Recently, as plants continue to age, many of these pools have come near capacity, prompting creation of dry cask storage facilities as well. Several lawsuits between utilities and the government have also transpired over the cost of these facilities, because by law the government is required to foot the bill for actions that go beyond the spent fuel pool.

Yucca became the front runner for the selection of a site for a national repository and then was decided to be the site by the government. Funding has been increasing in recent years and research is ongoing, but a date for receiving spent fuel is still a number of years off and the plan remains a political battleground.

Nuclear Organizations

Fuel Vendors

The following companies are those which have active Nuclear fuel fabrication facilities in the United States.¹⁸ These are all light water fuel fabrication facilities because only LWRs are operating in the US. The US currently has no MOX fuel fabrication facilities, though Duke Energy has expressed intent of building one of a relatively small capacity.¹⁹

Industry and Academic

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) scientific and educational organization that has academic and industry members. The organization publishes a large amount of literature on nuclear technology in several journals. The ANS also has some offshoot organizations such as North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN).

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is an industry group whose activities include lobbying, experience sharing between companies and plants, and provides data on the industry to a number of outfits.

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