28 nuclear plants may be built in the United States

According to several sources, the International Herald Tribune, Business Wire and CNN, the United States plan to build several nuclear power plants in the coming years.

The IHT article states : ” Power companies have tentative plans to put the 28 new reactors at 19 sites around the country. “

So after the Russian Confederation, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia, the USA is the fifth country I talk about that plans to build new nuclear reactors.

The United States are currently seeing a surge in nuclear energy and are increasingly interested by nuclear energy. This is quite well explained by the IHT :

The nuclear industry is enjoying growing political support after decades of opposition from environmental groups and others concerned about the risks. An increasing number of lawmakers in both parties, worried about global warming and dependence on foreign oil, support some expansion of nuclear power.

So, the nuclear industry asked the US Federal government loans :

A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate’s recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.

Lobbyists have told lawmakers and administration officials in recent weeks that the nuclear industry needs as much as $50 billion in loan guarantees over the next two years to finance a major expansion.

It has to be remembered that US electricity is half generated by coal fired plants. This energy source is the one that is emitting the most carbon dioxide.

It is estimated by the French Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA) that a kWh created by nuclear emits 32 times less CO2 than coal-fired plant (33.5 grams to be compared to 1,075). Similar figures are given by various different sources.

So if the United States build a subsequent amount of nuclear plants and that some of them replace coal-fired ones, the US overall emissions will decrease steeply. On top of that, this large country has to work on energy conservation, clean coal technologies and renewable energies. Clean coal technologies will also benefit from state loans.

These four solutions can be implemented worldwide in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to answer to the growing energy needs.

France and other countries have too the obligation to work on those matters, and this

Figure from the CEA comes from :

“ Clefs CEA ; Hydrogène, les nouvelles technologies de l’énergie” ;
Issue number 50/51 ; Page 6 ; Winter 2004/2005 ;
Calculation made via the average of low and high hypothesis ;
www.cea.fr

Sources and further reading :

• IHT : U.S energy bill aids the expansion plans of atomic power plants ;
• Business Wire : Entergy Nuclear Signs New Nuclear Project Development Agreement and Components Order with GE-Hitachi ;
• CNN Money : America’s nuclear revival ; Going Nuclear.