How much nuclear energy does the us use

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WNA Chernobyl Accident In September Santee Cooper and Westinghouse finalised the terms of a settlement over ownership of equipment associated with the VC Summer plant. The two companies have now agreed to split the net sales proceeds for major non-installed nuclear equipment.

Westinghouse has responsibility for marketing the nuclear equipment. The marketing and sales effort will last for up to five years. As part of the effort to increase US generating capacity, the government and industry have worked closely on design certification for advanced Generation III reactors. Design certification by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC means that, after a thorough examination of compliance with safety requirements, a generic type of reactor say, a Westinghouse AP can be built anywhere in the USA, only having to go through site-specific licensing procedures and obtaining a combined construction and operating licence see below before construction can begin.

Design certification needs to be renewed after 15 years. Several designs of small modular reactors SMRs are proceeding towards NRC design certification application or the alternative two-step route of construction permit then operating licence:. A fuller account of new reactor designs, including those certified but not marketed in the USA, is in the information page on Advanced Nuclear Power Reactors , or for the small modular reactors, in the page on Small Nuclear Power Reactors.

The early site permit ESP programme attracted four applicants: Exelon, Entergy, Dominion and Southern, for Clinton, Grand Gulf, North Anna and Vogtle sites respectively — all with operating nuclear plants already but room for more. No plant type is normally specified with an ESP application, but the site is declared suitable on safety, environmental and related grounds for a new nuclear power plant. In it withdrew the ESP application. The seventh ESP application was for small reactors.

It envisages that the emergency planning zone need extend only to the plant boundary. Site use permits can be awarded by the DOE for its sites. In December Oklo Inc received a site use permit for its 1. In , the Department of Energy DOE called for combined construction and operating licence COL proposals under its Nuclear Power programme on the basis that it would fund up to half the cost of any accepted.

The COL programme has two objectives: to encourage utilities to take the initiative in licence application; and to encourage reactor vendors to undertake detailed engineering and arrive at reliable cost estimates. Several industry consortia were created for the purpose of preparing COL applications for new reactors.

However, the only construction of new plants in the short term is in regulated markets, where costs can reliably be recovered. The tax credit is available only for the first MWe of new nuclear capacity, and lasts only for the first eight years of operation. Companies cannot claim the PTC until assets begin generating electricity. However in February , an extension to the PTC was passed by the US Senate and Congress that allows reactors entering service after 31 December to qualify for the tax credits, and allows the US Energy Secretary to allocate credit for up to MWe of new nuclear capacity which enters service after 1 January The nuclear PTC is seen as an essential component for the completion of US plants already under construction and for first-of-a-kind small modular reactor SMR construction.

Subtotal proposed: 7 large units, 11 small c 8, MWe gross. Construction was also well under way at Summer, South Carolina, but this project has now been cancelled — see section above. Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on 29 March , after struggling to find cash to fund growing cost overruns at its two US nuclear plant projects see above.

Westinghouse and 30 affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy protection, listing about 35, creditors involved.

Westinghouse said that its operations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa were not affected by the bankruptcy filings. Toshiba said that it anticipated a new entity to be found by Westinghouse would take a leading role in bringing that company out of bankruptcy, and that its own control of Westinghouse had ended. In March Toshiba said it would not provide additional funding without collateral, according to the bankruptcy protection filing. That resulted in the development of the debtor-in-possession financing, under which Westinghouse funded continuing operations.

Those owners of the Vogtle and Summer plants agreed to pay costs to continue construction themselves for a transition and evaluation period while final arrangements on future plant work were developed.

The project at Summer has since been abandoned. Westinghouse said that it remained committed to the AP technology and would continue to support plants that were then being built in China, and planned for China, USA, India, Turkey, the UK and elsewhere.

In February , the NRC reinstated the construction permits for these and later the status of the reactors classified as 'deferred'. Later in the company said it would defer consideration of completing unit 1 for a decade.

Bellefonte is a regulated plant, with guaranteed cost recovery. In mid the company signed an agreement with SNC-Lavalin to finish building the plant once the purchase is completed. Completion of unit 1 was then anticipated in In November Nuclear Development applied to the NRC to transfer the construction permits and announced its intention to involve Framatome in the project, but late in the NRC had not yet undertaken a review of the application.

The company was seeking a loan guarantee and was considering regional partnerships to build the plant. The environmental review for NRC was completed in December , showing no problems, the safety evaluation review was completed in August and the COLs issued in December Duke told NRC in that it was revising its COL application to move the nuclear island of both Lee units by some 20 metres to make excavation and construction easier.

If proceeding, the MWe net units were then expected online in and In August the company announced: "The risks and uncertainties to initiating construction on the Lee nuclear project have become too great, and cancellation of the project is the best option for customers. In the Florida Public Service Commission approved a levy towards construction of the reactors, and in May the state government approved the project, with new transmission lines.

In February , TANE entered into an engineering, procurement and construction EPC agreement that would convert into a turnkey contract once the final decision to proceed with the project had been taken. The deal was conditional on a DOE loan guarantee being awarded to the project. NINA was dissolved in COLs for each of the two units were issued in February In May , Toshiba announced its withdrawal from the project, stating that it was no longer financially viable.

Toshiba said its decision to exit the project was in line with its policy "to eliminate risk from the overseas nuclear power business, particularly from construction-related cost overruns in nuclear power plant construction projects.

The DOE has granted permission to site the plant on the square km Idaho National Laboratory estate, reportedly in the southern part of it. Under this agreement UAMPS had ten years to begin operating the first module, and this will trigger a year lease for the plant. The award represents around one-quarter of the development and construction costs over ten years.

A COL application was made in and environmental approval was received in January In August Duke Energy resolved to terminate the EPC contract as "a result of delays by the NRC in issuing COLs for new nuclear plants, as well as increased uncertainty in cost recovery caused by recent legislative changes in Florida.

In April Duke announced plans to build MWe of gas-fired capacity by instead of proceeding with the Levy County nuclear plant in the original timeframe. Duke Energy Florida was planning to sell all the long-lead time equipment it had ordered by the end of , but it was in dispute with Westinghouse over EPC contract termination. The last estimated operational dates were , the delay being due to "lower-than-projected customer demand, the lingering economic slowdown, uncertainty regarding potential carbon regulation and current low natural gas prices.

It would be a regulated plant, with guaranteed cost recovery. In August Duke Energy cancelled the project, citing the Westinghouse bankruptcy and slowing energy demand, and said it would not maintain the licences.

Dominion quotes MWe net summer capacity for the unit there. In May it agreed a construction contract with GE Hitachi and Fluor, conditional upon proceeding. Dominion said it will make a decision on building in due course, and hence it remains as 'proposed' according to the World Nuclear Association. Dominion suggests start-up in if it proceeds. It is a regulated plant, with guaranteed cost recovery. Bechtel has joined the project as an equity partner to design, license and deploy it.

The ESP was issued in December This was proceeding towards being granted at the end of Expansion of the plant would require raising the water level of Harris Lake by 6 metres, and relying on the Cape Fear River as backup cooling water. In May the NRC concluded that there were no environmental considerations that would hinder the project. Luminant's loan guarantee application was accepted by DOE and it was understood that this was the first alternative to the four shortlisted projects, two of which are now not proceeding for the time being.

Meanwhile Mitsubishi has withdrawn as a joint venture partner. Exelon, merging with Constellation in which EdF has The design certification application was submitted in December and the design certification rule was expected after mid, with delays due to the complexity of digital instrumentation and control systems. Areva then delayed the NRC schedule and in March indefinitely suspended the application.

No reactor technology was specified. About 54 GWe of US nuclear capacity is in regulated markets, and 45 GWe in deregulated merchant markets, with power sold competitively on a short-term basis.

In these liberalized markets, regional transmission organisations RTOs and independent system operators ISOs operate the grid, using free-market auctions and longer-term power purchase agreements under federal arrangements and rules. See Nuclear Energy Institute's list of nuclear plants in regulated and deregulated states. In states with deregulated electricity markets, nuclear power plant operators have found increasing difficulty with competition on two fronts: low-cost gas, particularly from shale gas developments; and subsidized wind power with priority grid access.

The imposition of a price on carbon dioxide emissions would help in competition with gas and coal, but this is not expected in the short-term.

Single-unit plants which tend to have higher operating costs per MWh are most vulnerable. The basic problem is low natural gas prices allowing gas-fired plants to undercut power prices. When there is oversupply, wind output is taken preferentially. According to Exelon, the main operator of merchant plants and a strong supporter of competitive wholesale electricity markets, low prices due to gas competition are survivable, but the subsidized wind is not.

Although wind is a very small part of the supply, and is limited or unavailable most of the time, it has a major effect on electricity prices and the viability of base-load generators. In May five Exelon reactors at three plants — Oyster Creek, Quad Cities and Byron — for the first time failed to clear the PJM capacity auction for three years ahead, , so did not receive capacity payments or an assured market for 12 months, despite having been a reliable basis of supply in New Jersey and Illinois for decades, and of zero-carbon sources.

Following the auction, FERC said it was actively considering ways it can ensure that base-load power sources, such as nuclear plants, are appropriately valued and their viability maintained in wholesale electricity markets.

Exelon said that its nuclear units cleared a total of 13, MWe of capacity in the auction. While the continued operation of Quad Cities is ensured by newly-introduced legislation in Illinois, Exelon said that the TMI reactor, which entered service in , was at risk of early retirement. Despite the higher price, just 19 GWe of nuclear cleared, a decrease of 7.

FirstEnergy, despite announcing retirement plans for 4 GWe of nuclear capacity in March, was required to offer the units into the auction — but none cleared.

Exelon shut down TMI 1 in September Despite the lower price, nuclear utilities cleared an additional 4.

In November Exelon said that its Clinton, Ginna and Quad Cities plants were at greatest risk of early retirement for economic reasons, with a question mark also over Byron. New York state is making similar provision for its upstate plants see below. Early in Entergy and the state of New York agreed that unit 2 of the Indian Point plant would close by the end of April , followed by unit 3 in April Its application for licence renewal of the two units was proceeding very slowly through the NRC review.

In September the NRC approved Entergy's request to shorten the term of renewed operating licences for units 2 and 3 to and respectively. Unit 2 closed on 30 April , and unit 3 on the same day a year later. In September Entergy announced that it will keep its Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan open until The company had previously announced in December that it planned to close the MWe net uni t in October due to economic factors in the partly deregulated market.