A Perspective: Status and Future of Nuclear Power in the United States Larry R. Foulke, ANS Vice President/President Elect American Nuclear Society 555 N. Kensington Avenue LaGrange Park, IL 60526, USA (412) 476-7511 Larry.R.Foulke@verizon.net For presentation at the Americas Nuclear Energy Symposium (ANES 2002), October 16, 2002 SUMMARY OF STATUS the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary has promulgated a modern licensing process Abraham summarized the current status of including an early site approval process and nuclear power in the United States well in his pre-certification of reactor designs. remarks that appeared in the April 2002 issue of Nuclear News . He stated that “Nuclear All this good news is attributable in no small way to the President's National Energy Policy 3 power is a vital part of the nation’s electricity supply. It has played a major role in supplying which endorses nuclear power, and an electricity in the United States for over three alphabet soup of exciting DOE programs such decades. Currently, 103 nuclear power as DOE 2010, NEPO (Nuclear Energy Plant reactors produce approximately 20% of the Optimization), NEER (Nuclear Engineering electricity consumed in this nation.” Education Research), NERI (Nuclear Energy Research Initiative), and INIE (Innovations in The current performance of nuclear plants in Nuclear Infrastructure and Education). the United States is excellent. Over the past 20 years, the average capacity factor has However, despite all this excellent increased from about 60% to over 90%. This performance and good news, no new nuclear increased capacity translates into an plants have been ordered in the United States additional 23,000 megawatts of power on the in the last 25 years. Given an energy source grid – the equivalent of building 23 new plants. with so many benefits, why have there been Nuclear safety has been excellent and there no new plant orders? have been substantial reductions in operating and maintenance costs, worker exposures to This paper addresses this issue and identifies radiation, and quantities of radioactive waste some steps to jump-start new plant orders. generated. Since the mid-1970s, nuclear These remarks represent a synthesis of views energy has enabled the United States to avoid from many of my colleagues in the American emitting over 80 million tons of sulfur dioxide Nuclear Society. and about 40 million tons of nitrogen oxides. 1 But before addressing the issue of building the Nuclear generated electricity is among the next nuclear power plant, let us acknowledge cheapest available today. The production that there is a lot going on in the nuclear costs (fuel, operations, maintenance) of most technology arena in the United States other nuclear plants are less than two cents a than the use of nuclear power to produce kilowatt-hour and the best plants generate electricity. electricity for only about one cent a kilowatt- hour. This has not gone unnoticed by the Today, in addition to providing clean energy, a industry. Seven reactor facilities have dazzling array of nuclear technologies helps received 20-year license extensions. Many to: more plants are expected to follow in the next � few years. Performance is excellent and there improve medical diagnosis, � is a good market for pre-owned plants. protect livestock health, Recent university data 2 suggests that there is � develop water resources, � an upswing in nuclear engineering preserve food, � enrollments. Yucca Mountain is moving along promote agricultural productivity, � towards becoming a geological repository and cure human illness,
� enhance human nutrition, Where feasible and sustainable, solar and � advance environmental science, wind energy will be delivered as electricity just � eradicate virulent pests, and as will nuclear energy. Solar and wind power � strengthen industrial quality control. have always played a role and they always will. But they alone simply cannot do the job. Currently, more than 12 million nuclear It boils down to numbers. Just as it takes medicine procedures are performed each year more potatoes to feed an army than to feed a in the United States, and it is estimated that family, it takes more energy to run a nation one in every three hospitalized patients has a (gigawatt chunks) than to run a household (kilowatt chunks). 6 nuclear medicine procedure performed in the management of his or her illness. 4 Neither is the statement, that "the renaissance ABUNDANT ENERGY PROVIDES LIFE of nuclear power in the United States is QUALITY inevitable," meant to be anti-conservation. Our national well-being depends on reliable Where feasible and rational, the efficient use and abundant energy. Energy is the daily of energy should be promoted. Over the past bread of civilization. We use energy to till the two decades, Americans have indeed learned soil, to grind grain, to move flour to the to use energy more efficiently. The United bakeries, and to bake the bread. Energy States uses about 10% more energy today drives our economy. Energy heats our homes than it did in 1973, yet there are more than 20 and pumps our clean water. We use energy million additional homes, 50 million more to build not only our homes, but also vehicles, and the gross national product is 50% higher.” 7 everything in our homes. In short, energy drives society – in every economy and every civilization. Civilization would simply vanish The transportation sector offers the greatest without energy. Energy frees man to be opportunity for conservation and reduced creative. On the other hand, without abundant dependence on foreign and domestic fossil energy, there would be no unemployment! fuels because it is the largest consumer of We’d all be working 24 hours a day and seven petroleum. To reduce our reliance on foreign days a week simply to stay alive – chopping oil and make a cleaner environment, all wood, hoeing the crops, subsisting and feasible domestic energy options should be surviving. In addition, social security would exploited to free us from using carbon-based not be a problem; the average life span would fuels. Unfortunately, the United States has probably drop by 20 years to return to what it responded to decreased domestic production used to be. However, those are improve- of oil and gas by increasing imports. ments we can do without. However, that strategy simply will not be viable in the future. Today, many believe that In addition, our economy is, according to Peter we are facing worldwide pollution that is Huber, 5 increasingly, using energy in the form environmentally unacceptable. Furthermore, of electricity. If you go back to the 1880's, no within 10 to 15 years we will be facing oil and electricity was used. Ever since, the share of gas prices that will be politically unacceptable. "all energy" used in the United States in the Electrical energy, generated by any means, form of electricity has grown to 40% and that will pave the way for an eventual shift from the trend will continue. According to Huber, more use of petroleum in transportation, either as a than 90% of the growth in energy demand generator of hydrogen through electricity or since 1980 has been met by electricity. directly through electricity. Automobiles will continue to become more electrified, become hybrids over the next 10 But conservation alone cannot do the job. years, and then be followed by a transition to There are 1.6 billion people in the world today who have no access to electricity. 8 In the year electric propulsion or the use of hydrogen as a fuel (perhaps produced by electricity), or a 2000, 1.1 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water). 9 They also need energy. combination of both. The renaissance of nuclear power in the This all sounds logical and compelling. United States is inevitable. This statement is However, no new, large commercial electrical not meant to be anti-solar and anti-wind. generating capacity of any kind will be built
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