![]() Japan has fast-tracked a plan to reopen many of the nuclear plants that it mothballed after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns. In Michigan, Governor Whitmer is supporting the Palisades’ new owner in seeking a federal grant that might allow the plant to go back into operation. In early 2022, three nuclear and environmental experts proposed restoring Indian Point to operational status. The renewed case for nuclear power has grown so compelling that some experts and policymakers are advocating patching up recently shuttered plants and returning them to service. At the same time, today’s high energy prices make nuclear power more financially competitive, increasing the incentives for plant owners to keep facilities running. Ontario recently announced a move to delay closure of the Pickering plant for one year while the province studies the possibility of refurbishing the facility to keep it running. In a stunning about-face, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill authorizing the use of state funds to prevent the retirement of Diablo Canyon, the state’s only nuclear plant still in operation. Some government officials are searching for ways to extend the operating lives of plants scheduled for closure. Meanwhile, the rollout of wind and solar power is lagging behind the pace demanded by renewable advocates.įacing these challenges-as well as growing climate concerns-many longtime nuclear opponents are now willing to tolerate, or even embrace, the still-controversial power source. In the U.S., surging natural gas prices have, in turn, driven up electricity rates and home heating costs. Energy supplies were tight even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and now much of the world faces crippling energy shortages. But in recent months, nuclear power has had a surprising reversal of fortune. For decades, many progressives and environmentalists have fought against nuclear power and cheered plant closures. In Europe, policymakers have been prematurely shutting down nuclear power plants for more than a decade, based on an unrealistic gamble that wind and solar power would soon replace those sources. Doing so would remove 3,100 MW from the shared North American power grid. Just over the Canadian border, Ontario officials are debating plans to shutter that province’s enormous Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. State subsidies and friendlier market conditions have kept most of those facilities in operation, but the number of plants still at risk remains unknown. nuclear plants were facing premature closure. In 2018, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimated that as many as one-third of U.S. Additional plant retirements are possible. has shuttered five other reactors: New Jersey’s Oyster Creek plant in 2018 the Pilgrim power plant in Massachusetts in 2019 Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit 1 (which was not damaged in the famous 1979 accident involving another reactor at the site), also in 2019 Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center in 2020 and, most recently, Michigan’s Palisades plant, which closed in May 2022, despite last-ditch efforts by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to keep it open. Over roughly the past four years, the U.S. Indian Point is just one in a series of nuclear plants that have been retired long before the end of their potential life spans. The Indian Point closure also produced a huge increase in electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions, of 15%–30%, depending on how they are measured. New York’s Independent System Operator has warned that the power grid’s “reliability margins will shrink in upcoming years.” In other words, the region is becoming more susceptible to blackouts. ![]() By early 2022, 89% of downstate electricity was being produced by fossil fuels, and electricity rates were skyrocketing. So, not surprisingly, Indian Point’s precipitous closure put enormous pressure on the region’s energy supply. New York State has what Vox has called “the country’s most ambitious climate targets, including 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040.” Nonetheless, construction of renewable energy infrastructure in the state is far behind schedule. As many analysts predicted, Indian Point’s electricity was replaced mostly by power coming from natural gas-fired power plants. ![]() ![]() Former governor Andrew Cuomo-along with the environmental group Riverkeeper and other activists who backed the closure-promised that Indian Point’s electricity would be easily replaced by the state’s growing wind and solar capacity, along with imported hydropower and improved efficiency. In all, the premature closure of the Buchanan, New York, nuclear plant removed a massive 2,069 megawatts (MW) from the power grid, roughly 25% of the New York City region’s power supply. Unit 2, the plant’s other functional reactor, had gone silent a year earlier. On April 30, 2021, the Indian Point Energy Center shut down Unit 3, its last operating reactor.
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