New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans immediately to develop a brand new nuclear energy plant, the primary to be constructed within the state in many years.
It’s the newest sign that nuclear vitality may see a comeback within the US because of wide-ranging assist from some unusual bedfellows: the Trump administration purporting to hunt “vitality dominance”; tech corporations in want of extra electrical energy for AI knowledge facilities; and local weather hawks on board with nuclear vitality as a carbon pollution-free various to fossil fuels.
Nuclear vitality may 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 higher range of its vitality sources that can assist New York’s purpose of a rising economic system with a dependable, zero-emission electrical energy system,” New York State Power Analysis and Improvement Authority president and CEO Doreen Harris mentioned in a press release.
Hochul is directing the New York Energy Authority to assemble at the least one new web site for nuclear vitality upstate with the capability to generate at the least 1 gigawatt of electrical energy (about half the capability of Hoover Dam energy plant).
The state is curious about advanced reactors which might be nonetheless underneath growth, within the hopes of overcoming a few of the obstacles the nuclear vitality business has confronted over time. After a growth 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 where to store radioactive waste have additionally slowed down the business.
The Vogtle energy plant in Georgia has grow to be an instance of the sorts of issues which have plagued nuclear energy tasks; it’s the location of the primary all-new reactors constructed within the US in additional than three decades. After building began in 2009, Vogtle models 3 and 4 lastly came online in 2023 and 2024, roughly $17 billion over funds.
Now, the average age of a nuclear reactor within the US is 42 years previous, with many retiring just lately or scheduled to quickly shutter. That pattern is beginning to reverse, with assist from Large 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 Eighties alive for an additional 20 years. And Microsoft announced a power purchase agreement final 12 months that’s speculated to result in the restart of 1 reactor at Three Mile Island.
