Abundance of shale makes nuclear plants expendable

It’s time — past due time — to bury nuclear power. A week doesn’t go by without reports of safety and performance problems at decades-old U.S. nuclear plants. More than one-third of the plants are unprofitable or scheduled to close. Cheap natural gas and renewables are threatening the profitability of nuclear plants around the country — and bringing home the reality that America can do better for its money than bailing out money-losing plants.

Using nuclear power to provide one-fifth of the nation’s electricity when

cheaper and safer alternatives are available is nonsensical. You don’t need science or economics to know that. Goodness knows how much consumers would benefit from closing financially ailing nuclear plants like the Perry and DavisBesse reactors in Ohio.

The nuclear industry still hopes to persuade state governments to provide billions of dollars in financial assistance to keep plants operating. But to say that such subsidies are counterproductive and jeopardize economic growth is a dramatic understatement.

One would be hardpressed to find a better poster child for the nuclear industry’s problems than Ohio. Firstenergy Solutions, the Akron-based company which operates the Davis-besse and Perry plants, has said both units are slated to close by 2021 unless the state government steps in and provides financial assistance. Both plants have a long history of safety violations, the most recent being problems with backup emergency diesels that caused the reactor core meltdowns at the Fukushima plant in Japan.

Yet some members of the state legislature want to keep the plants in service. A House committee has approved a bill that would provide about $170 million annually for the DavisBesse and Perry plants. Households and businesses would pay for the subsidies.

Nuclear power accounts for about 12% of Ohio’s electricity generating capacity. The shale revolution has made natural gas so cheap that it is displacing coal and emerging as a winner in competition with nuclear power. This has meant lower costs for consumers. In the past decade, natural gas generation has grown from 1.6% of Ohio’s electricity supply to more than 34% in 2018. This surge has become an engine of economic growth, with wide impacts on jobs, economic development and the competitiveness of Ohio’s industry. And with the switch from coal to natural gas, air pollution levels and carbon emissions have dropped and further environmental gains are expected as the use of gas grows.

Price has tilted the playing field to make gas the preferred source of fuel for generating electricity. There is no excuse for the continued use of coal and nuclear power.

Ohio should get serious about boosting the use of renewables, which provide a mere 2.7% of the state’s electricity. Increasing the use of solar and wind power would reduce emissions and help limit the worst impacts of climate change. But let’s be realistic: Renewables require natural gas to provide backup power on days when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Moreover, gas is cheap and abundant, thanks to huge reserves in the Utica and Marcellus shales.

The energy challenges in Ohio are serious and urgent. The consequences of burdening consumers with millions of dollars a year in subsidies for nuclear power is something we can’t let happen. Now is the time for the state legislature to pull the plug on nuclear power.