Nuclear renaissance in the United States
Between 2007 and 2009, 13 companies applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for construction and operating licenses to build 31 new nuclear power reactors in the United States. However, the case for widespread nuclear plant construction has been hampered due to inexpensive natural gas, slow electricity demand growth in a weak US economy, lack of financing, and safety concerns following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Most of the proposed 31 reactors have been canceled, and only two reactors are under construction. In 2013, four reactors were permanently closed: San Onofre 2 and  3 in California following equipment problems, Crystal River 3 in Florida, and Kewaunee in Wisconsin. Vermont Yankee, in Vernon, was closed on Dec. 29, 2014. In March 2017, the last remaining U.S.-based new nuclear company, Westinghouse Electric Company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of US$9 billion of losses from its U.S. nuclear construction projects. Later that year construction of two reactors of their AP1000 design at V.C. Summer was canceled due to delays and cost overruns raising questions about the future of the two remaining US reactors under construction, since these are also of the AP1000 design. As  of 2021, the private sector focus has shifted toward the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), which could theoretically cut down on the high costs and lengthy construction times of conventional nuclear plants. NuScale Power is the only company thus far to have been granted regulatory approval for an SMR design from the NRC, however. Both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden have proposed or helped pass legislation that would increase subsidies for new and existing nuclear plants. Overview. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 offered the nuclear power industry financial incentives and economic subsidies that, according to economist John  Quiggin, the "developers of wind and solar power could only dream of". The Act provides substantial loan guarantees, cost-overrun support of up to $2 billion total for multiple new nuclear power plants, and the extension of the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act through to 2025. The Act was promoted as a forerunner to a "nuclear renaissance" in the United States, with dozens of new plants being announced. Others saw the Act, which repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA), as an attempt by oil and gas interests to monopolize utility generation through deregulation. Former  Federal Energy Regulatory Commission administrator Lynn Hargis noted in 2005 that "PUHCA prohibits the re-creation of the huge holding companies (the Power Trusts) that grew up in the 1920s and ‘30s, when three utility holding companies owned nearly half of all the electric utilities in the country." She correctly predicted that repealing PUHCA would lead to "massive consolidation of utility ownership." Within one year of PUHCA's August 2005 repeal the spot price of natural gas had dropped by 26%, creating a financial incentive for utilities to abandon nuclear generation in favor of natural gas. Many license applications filed  with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for proposed new reactors were suspended or cancelled. As of 2020, the plans for 31 new renaissance reactors in the United States have resulted in two reactors beginning construction, a third reactor being commissioned, and two additional reactors, Virgil C. Summers Units 2 and 3 in South Carolina, beginning construction before being canceled. Vogtle units 3 and 4 are the two new units and occupy an existing nuclear site. The other construction likewise occupies an existing site at Watts Bar, but had been 80% built from 1973 to 1985, with the final 20% occurring from  2007 to 2015. Matthew Wald from the "New York Times" has reported that "the nuclear renaissance is looking small and slow". In 2008, the Energy Information Administration projected almost 17 gigawatts of new nuclear power reactors by 2030, but in its 2011 projections, it "scaled back the 2030 projection to just five". A survey conducted in April 2011 found that 64 percent of Americans opposed the construction of new nuclear reactors. Yet five months later a survey sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute found that "62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of  the ways to provide electricity in the United States, with 35 percent opposed". As of December 2011, construction by Southern Company on two new nuclear units (Vogtle 3 & 4) has begun, and they are expected to be delivering commercial power by 2016 and 2017. In the wake of Fukushima, experts at the time saw continuing challenges that they felt would make it difficult for the nuclear power industry to expand beyond a small handful of reactor projects that "government agencies decide to subsidize by forcing taxpayers to assume the risk for the reactors and mandating that ratepayers pay for construction  in advance". As of 2014, the U.S. nuclear industry began a new lobbying effort, hiring three former senators — Evan Bayh, a Democrat; Judd Gregg, a Republican; and Spencer Abraham, a Republican — as well as William M. Daley, a former staffer to President Obama. The initiative is called Nuclear Matters, and it has begun a newspaper advertising campaign. On March 29, 2017, parent company Toshiba placed Westinghouse Electric Company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of $9 billion of losses from its nuclear reactor construction projects. The projects responsible for this loss are mostly the construction of four AP1000 reactors at  Vogtle in Georgia and V. C. Summer in South Carolina. The U.S. government had given $8.3 billion of loan guarantees on the financing of the four nuclear reactors being built in the U.S., and it is expected a way forward to completing the plant can be agreed. Peter A. Bradford, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission member, commented "They placed a big bet on this hallucination of a nuclear renaissance". The "National Review" characterised the U.S. nuclear industry as being in "deep crisis". As of 2017, the U.S. shale gas boom has lowered electricity generation costs placing severe pressure on the  economics of operating older existing nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Energy Institute has estimated that 15 to 20 reactors are at risk of early closure for economic reasons. Nuclear operators in Illinois and New York have obtained financial support from regulators, and operators in Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania are seeking similar support. A 2017 assessment put rising nuclear construction costs, low gas prices and improving renewable generation economics as the three main causes of the failure of the nuclear renaissance in the United States. In 2019, former Department of Energy Deputy Secretary, Daniel Poneman, released a book on  nuclear power discussing the need for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy that advances the goal of decarbonizing the environment through all available means, specifically, nuclear power. Poneman argues that the United States should work to enhance the ability of nuclear power to combat climate change even as we reduce the risks of nuclear terror. Others, including James Hansen, Bret Kugelmass, and Joshua S. Goldstein, have echoed those points. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), low-carbon energy sources must account for 85% of global electricity generation by 2040 (up from 36% in 2019) to stave off the  worst effects of climate change. IEA advocates for nuclear energy as the most feasible option for meeting that goal. The Washington, D.C.-based research institute, Energy Impact Center, has set the goal of completely decarbonizing the global economy by 2040 using primarily nuclear energy. The center is also responsible for the nuclear energy- and climate-related podcast, "Titans of Nuclear". This renewed interest in nuclear power as a climate change mitigation tool has led to efforts aimed at speeding up construction time and reducing costs of power plants. In 2020, the Department of Energy awarded $80 million each to TerraPower  and X-energy as part of its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Both companies are developing small modular reactor (SMR) projects which are theoretically easier and more inexpensive to build than traditional plants. Similarly, the Energy Impact Center developed OPEN100, another SMR project introduced in 2020 that has published open-source blueprints for the design and construction of a nuclear power plant with a pressurized water reactor. As of 2021, however, the only company to be granted regulatory approval from the NRC for its SMR design is NuScale Power. Detailed history. Nuclear power has proved controversial since the 1970s. Highly radioactive  materials may overheat and escape from the reactor building. Toxic, radioactive waste (spent nuclear fuel) needs to be regularly removed from the reactors and disposed of safely for up to a million years, so that it does not pollute the environment. Recycling of nuclear waste has been discussed, but it creates plutonium which can be used in weapons, and in any case still leaves much unwanted waste to be stored and disposed of. Large, purpose-built facilities for long-term disposal of nuclear waste have been difficult to site, and have not yet reached fruition. Specific controversies, and projects which  have not proceeded according to plan, include: