The United States is closing older nuclear power plants and taking baby steps toward building new ones while China, the world’s No. 2 economy, aggressively ramps up its nuclear power inventory and has added 37 reactors in the past decade.
Only one new nuclear power plant has opened in the U.S. in the past 30 years because of concerns about safety and costs.
China’s capacity to generate electricity from nuclear power plants is on track to overtake France in 2025 and will be on par with the U.S. in 2030.
“China’s nuclear rise is driven by demand,” Francois Morin, China director at the World Nuclear Association, told The Washington Times.
Like China, the U.S. is facing increasing energy needs. Rather than ramping up fossil fuels and nuclear power, the U.S. is taking steps to reduce more reliable energy sources and replace them with intermittent renewables such as wind and solar.
Twelve U.S. nuclear power reactors have been permanently shuttered since 2012, reducing the number of operating commercial nuclear reactors to 93.
Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Georgia, which became fully operational in July, was the first nuclear power plant to open in the U.S. in 30 years.
Nuclear energy, the largest source of clean U.S. power since 1984, peaked at 20% of the U.S. electricity grid in 2020 before dropping to less than 19% last year.
Nuclear power is forecast to make up only 12% of the U.S. energy grid by 2050, the Energy Information Administration said. Solar and wind power will increase steadily to 18% by next year.
Nuclear power has become a shrinking part of the U.S. energy mix as President Biden moves to end the use of all fossil fuels, including natural gas, in the nation’s electrical grid.
“I’m not necessarily concerned that China is building nuclear. I’m more concerned that the United States is completely taking an ax to its own ability to produce affordable, abundant, reliable energy,” said Jack Spencer, senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The shift away from reliable energy sources has put the U.S. grid at risk this winter, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said in November.
“The growth of intermittent resources, like solar generation, on the distribution system significantly increases load forecasting complexity and uncertainty,” said Mark Olson, the nonprofit organization’s manager of reliability assessments.
China is building more coal and nuclear power plants to meet the nation’s rising energy needs.
Mr. Morin said China has become largely self-sufficient in constructing nuclear reactors while adapting to and improving on Western technology.
China plans to export its nuclear technology, including heavy components, into the global supply chain.
China now operates 55 nuclear reactors and is building an additional 26. It has not shuttered a single nuclear power plant.
Beijing permitted the production of more coal-fired power plants in the third quarter of last year than all of 2021, Greenpeace reported. About 63% of China’s energy is derived from coal.
Nuclear energy makes up about 5% of electricity generation in China. Factoring in the growing energy demand and ramped-up production of reactors, nuclear power is expected to increase to 18% by 2050.
China considers nuclear power a green energy source. Nuclear reactors use nuclear fission to heat water and produce steam that generates electricity without emitting carbon dioxide or pollutants.
Along with wind and solar, which made up 14% of China’s energy grid in 2022, nuclear power is part of the country’s plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and eventually cut back on polluting coal plants while increasing energy security.
“They didn’t wait for energy scarcity or supply risk to promote nuclear energy,” Mr. Morin said.
The Biden administration is incorporating nuclear power into its plan to eliminate fossil fuels from the energy grid and has spent $6 billion to keep aging nuclear power plants in operation. Still, winning federal approval for new nuclear power plant projects has become nearly impossible. The process can take more than a decade to complete at a cost of billions of dollars.
Construction of the Vogtle project, with four reactors, began in 2009, endured repeated delays and cost roughly $30 billion, more than double the original estimate.
The project was slowed by the cumbersome permitting process and the nation’s lack of a nuclear energy supply chain and skilled workers. All of it had to be reestablished to build the plant.
Vogtle’s fourth reactor is expected to begin operations early this year. When completed, the plant will be the country’s largest generator of clean energy.
It might be the last new U.S. nuclear power plant for a while.
Plans for the technology of small-scale nuclear power plants have yet to succeed.
Citing construction cost concerns, Oregon-based NuScale Power canceled plans in November to use new technology to build a six-reactor plant in Idaho. The plant was supposed to replace coal plants in the area and provide enough electricity for 300,000 homes by 2029.
Despite hurdles, the U.S. is pledging to resuscitate its flagging nuclear power sector.
Nuclear’s future in the U.S. was bolstered last month at the United Nations COP28 climate change conference. The U.S. joined 21 other countries in pledging to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, which the International Energy Agency says is critical to reducing carbon emissions.
China, which did not sign the pledge, is not guaranteed to overtake the United States.
“If the U.S. apply to themselves such a commitment, then in 2050, China and U.S. nuclear power capacities should still be comparable,” Mr. Morin said. “If such a recommendation applies for the world as a whole but the U.S. only doubles their current capacity, then China will be far ahead. Indeed, even though China didn’t sign the declaration, the Chinese plan is to quintuple its current operating capacity by 2050.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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