Vogtle nuclear power plant. Credit: Southern Nuclear

US Government Agrees To 10-Year Nuclear Power Plan

January 6, 2025January 6, 20251 day ago Steve Hanley 0 Comments

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

For decades, nuclear power has been something nobody wanted to talk about. Part of the reason is the disasters that have befallen several nuclear power plants — Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. When things go wrong at a nuke, they go really wrong, Older readers may remember a movie that played on those fears called The China Syndrome. The premise was that in a total meltdown, the reactor core would become so hot it would burn its way all the way through the Earth until it arrived on the other side of the world. The three-eyed fish in The Simpsons didn’t help either.

But there’s another reason why nuclear power has been out of favor lately. Construction of new nuclear power plants invariably takes up to a decade before construction begins and cost overruns often double the original cost estimates — or more. In the US, those cost overruns get passed directly onto the shoulders of ratepayers. There is no penalty assessed to utility companies if they guess wrong. A cynical person would say construction costs are deliberately underestimated to get projects approved, knowing customers with the foot the final bill but we would never suggest such a thing. The poster child for this sort of ratepayer abuse is the Vogtle nuclear project for which ratepayers will be paying off the more than $14 billion in cost overruns for decades to come.

But if building new nuclear power plants is difficult, extending the life of old ones and squeezing more capacity out of them may be a strategy to help address the astonishing rise in the demand for electricity attributable to data centers. Microsoft this week announced it will invest $80 billion this year to build new data centers to handle the explosion in the use of artificial intelligence sweeping the world. People hop up and down about renewables and electric cars destabilizing the electrical grid, but no one seems to be at all upset by the millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity that will be needed to feed the AI craze.

GSA Commits To Ten Years Of Nuclear Power

One the customers for nuclear power from existing facilities is the General Services Administration, the agency responsible for keeping the lights on in federal buildings. This week it committed to pay Constellation Energy more than $1 billion for electricity over the next ten years to power 13 federal agencies and implement energy efficiency measures in five GSA-owned facilities in the National Capital Region. Joe Dominguez, Constellation President and CEO revealed some crucial aspects of this deal.

“For many decades, Constellation’s nuclear fleet has provided carbon-free, reliable, American-made energy to millions of families and institutions. Frustratingly, however, nuclear energy was excluded from many corporate and government sustainable energy procurements. Not anymore. This agreement is another powerful example of how things have changed. Under this agreement, the United States government joins Microsoft and other entities to support continued investment in reliable nuclear energy that will allow Constellation to relicense and extend the lives of these critical assets. In combination with the Crane restart announced previously, Constellation and its partners will add approximately 1,100 MWs of 24/7 clean energy by 2028, enough energy to power over one million homes.”

Of course, none of that electricity will power any homes, but people in the industry love saying so because it makes things seem more warm and fuzzy.

Constellation says it has signed a 10-year, $840 million contract — the largest in GSA history. Starting in 2025, it will supply over 1 million megawatt-hours of power annually and part of it will come from investments the company plans to make that will enhance the output of its nuclear facilities. The company has also secured a $172 million Energy Savings Performance Contract to improve energy efficiency at five GSA-owned facilities in the National Capital Region. It includes the Elijah Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, the William B. Bryant Annex, the Orville Wright Federal Building, and the Wilbur Wright Federal Building, all located in Washington, DC. The fifth building, the Harvey W. Wiley Federal Building is in College Park, Maryland.

GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan had this to say about the agreement. “This historic procurement locks in a cost competitive, reliable supply of nuclear energy over a 10 year period, accelerating progress toward a carbon free energy future while protecting taxpayers against future price hikes. We’re demonstrating how the federal government can join major corporate clean energy buyers in spurring new nuclear energy capacity and ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of clean energy for everyone.”

Under the supplementary contract, Constellation will initiate several energy saving measures to enhance efficiency and lower emissions. These upgrades will include installing advanced LED lighting systems, improving building weatherization, and replacing or enhancing windows. New or upgraded heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems will also be installed along with modernized building control equipment. These upgrades will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cost for federal buildings.

Renewed Interest In Nuclear Power

In the US, nuclear energy provides about 20% of the country’s total power and 50% of its carbon free energy. It offers steady, clean power, which keeps the electric grid stable and reliable even in extreme weather. This, in turn, boosts American energy security and independence. Moreover, it creates good jobs that strengthen communities, Constellation Energy says. CEO Joseph Dominguez has spoken publicly about the advantaged of small modular reactors and expressed interest in a multi-tiered cooperative structure with companies like Microsoft and Google to fund site development and construction. The objective would be to accelerate the development of various projects by creating new commercial opportunities such as advanced nuclear, next generation geothermal, clean hydrogen, and long duration energy storage.

Last month, the company launched a pilot project in Washington D.C. that allows consumers to power their homes with clean nuclear energy at 11.99 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the current supply rate from the local utility. By choosing carbon-free nuclear energy, D.C. residents can cut their energy bills while conserving the environment. Each year, Constellation’s clean energy operations prevent 125 million metric tons of carbon emissions. That’s the same as removing 29 million gas-powered cars from the road, the company says.

Opinions Vary

People have different opinions about nuclear energy. While it is true that once in operation, nuclear generating stations are able to provide reliable base load power at competitive prices, the claims about being carbon-free have to be tempered somewhat because of the massive emissions involved in making the huge cement concrete containment structures that surround nuclear reactors to protect the outside world from radiation in the event of a major malfunction. There is also little to no discussion about how to deal with nuclear waste products. Industry advocates pooh-pooh that topic, saying the waste products are so small, they are insignificant. Not so for the cooling water used to keep temperatures in reactors under control. At Fukushima, millions of gallons of radioactive wastewater was stored for years before finally being released into the ocean.

The upshot of all this is that nuclear power has gotten a new lease on life thanks to the demand for electricity to power data centers in the brave new world of AI. Whether humanity is mortgaging its future once again to pay homage to the gods of technology by expanding the role of nuclear energy is a question that cannot be answered accurately at this time. For that, we will need years of data before we know whether this is a wise move or not. The bottom line is that nuclear power is often more about profits for utility companies than anything else.

Conceptually, all energy is nuclear — the result of the fusion device 92 million miles away we call the sun. Whether we would be better off investing in more solar power with long term storage rather than more nuclear depends entirely on the economic interests of the person answering that question. At CleanTechnica, we tend to be quite skeptical about nuclear power. There have been so many promises over the years from solar advocates, but the results and the benefits always seem to be a decade or more away. Extending existing nukes beyond their planned useful life seems to us like just asking for trouble. Are we being too pessimistic?