If WNP-1 has a role to play in our energy future, it results not just from higher gas prices, but from the fact that nuclear operations have improved dramatically over the past 20 years. Capacity factors are up. Over the past two decades, nuclear power plants in the United States have achieved increasingly higher capacity factors. The average capacity factor in 1980 was less than 60 percent. Today the figure is about 90 percent.
Production costs are down.
Plant life has increased. When today's fleet of 103 nuclear reactors were licensed, each had an expected life of 40 years. Today, reactor lifetime has been extended to 60 years. In the next few years, virtually every existing nuclear reactor, including Columbia, will receive approval for an additional 20 years of operation. If completed, WNP-1 would also operate for 60 years.