The U.S. opened its first new nuclear power plant in 20 years on Wednesday, at a time of growing uncertainty for the industry and the need for regulatory changes at both the state and federal level.
The federally created Tennessee Valley Authority declared the $4.7 billion Unit 2 reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant open for business, a project that has been decades in the making.
“This is a great day for TVA and for the people of the Tennessee Valley,” said TVA President Bill Johnson at a ceremony marking the reactor’s start-up.
The new reactor restores the U.S. nuclear power plant fleet to 100, after Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant closed in 2014 for economic reasons in addition to local pressure to shut it down.
California is following Vermont to close its fleet of reactors, while the largest nuclear power utility in the country, Exelon, has threatened to close a number of its plants if they continue to lose money.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s lead trade group, hailed the opening of the new plant as a step in the right direction for the energy industry, emphasizing that the reactor will provide low-emission, carbon-free electricity to the grid.
The trade group has made illustrating the environmental benefits of nuclear power a key part of its lobbying strategy as it presses states and the Obama administration to establish policies that will keep the U.S. power fleet intact amid low natural gas prices and renewable energy subsidies that are distorting the marketplace.
“This is a historic day,” said Marv Fertel, the trade group’s CEO. “At a time when our nation and the world are seeking cleaner sources of affordable, reliable energy, Watts Bar Unit 2 is poised to produce tremendous environmental and economic benefits for communities in the Tennessee Valley for decades to come.”
The plant, 60 miles southwest of Knoxville, will provide power to 650,000 homes in the seven-state region that comprises the Tennessee Valley Authority’s service footprint.
The trade group points out that nuclear energy facilities are in 30 states and generate 19 percent of America’s electricity.
The industry has emphasized that its power plants produce no carbon dioxide emissions, which a majority of scientists blame for causing the Earth’s temperature to rise, resulting in more severe weather and flooding.
The industry group said last week that it will make working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to resolve the market issues affecting its power plants a core focus of its federal agenda into the new year. It also will be looking for new federal incentives, such as those given to wind and solar, to bridge the gap for the power plants until the commission can implement its market fix, which could take some time.
The market fix would ensure that nuclear power plants are being adequately priced in the markets that the commission oversees based on the full range of benefits they provide, including environmental benefits.
