For ailing US nuclear industry, new plants a shot in the arm

WASHINGTON: The US nuclear power industry got a boost this week when state authorities in Georgia gave the go- ahead to complete construction on two new reactors.

But this may not reverse the industry’s recent decline.

The Georgia Public Service Commission on Thursday approved construction of Vogtle reactors three and four, the last planned reactors of this type in the United States. A project in South Carolina was halted in July. The two new reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia are expected to enter service at the end of 2022.

“Demonstrating we can build and complete new nuclear plants here in America will help us regain our leadership in a technology we invented,” Maria Korsnick, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, said in a statement.

“America’s pre- eminence in nuclear energy makes our country safer because it allows us to influence and control how this technology is used around the world.” Currently there are 99 reactors in the United States, accounting for about 20 per cent of the country’s electricity generation. But apart from the Vogtle project, no other reactor is under construction and none have come on line since last year.

President Donald Trump has shown much more interest in reviving coal power than nuclear, even though Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Twitter called the Vogtle decision ‘an important milestone for the future of clean, reliable, and American nuclear energy!’ — AFP