{"id":13332,"date":"2024-10-10T19:30:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T19:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=13332"},"modified":"2024-10-10T20:11:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T20:11:55","slug":"more-headway-on-increasing-nuclear-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=13332","title":{"rendered":"More headway on increasing nuclear power"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/more-headway-on-increasing-nuclear-power\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Biden administration\u2019s climate adviser told a \u201csustainability conference\u201d<\/a> this week that the president wants to reactivate decommissioned nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n

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Investors already have announced plans to restart the dormant reactors at two closed plants, in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Asked if any additional plants could be restarted, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told<\/a> the Reuters IMPACT conference in New York Monday, \u201cWe\u2019re working on it in a very concrete way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news follows a Department of Energy report in September that examined the potential for adding new reactors at currently operating nuclear power plant sites or at recently closed \u2014 but still intact \u2014 nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n

That\u00a0differs from the sort of restarts that Zaidi discussed, centering instead on adding new, \u201cadvanced\u201d reactors at sites that already have infrastructure and accepting neighbors.<\/p>\n

That report tallied up space<\/a> for new reactors in Wisconsin at operating and closed plants, and while it did not name either, the only such sites in Wisconsin would be the state\u2019s one operating nuclear plant, the Point Beach Nuclear Plant, north of Two Rivers, and its one closed but intact plant, Kewaunee Power Station, 4 miles to the north. The report said either site could accommodate a new reactor of about 1,100 megawatts, approximately the current output of Point Beach. One such reactor at each site would about triple the power available to Wisconsinites from nuclear generation, which now provides about 16%<\/a> of the state\u2019s electricity.<\/p>\n

One of the two plants for which reopening is already under way is across Lake Michigan from Kenosha<\/a> \u2014 the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. The plant was turned off in 2022, just as Michigan\u2019s governor had a change of heart about nuclear power\u2019s role as the state faces struggles to generate enough electricity<\/a> amid new demands for power and the decommissioning of coal- and gas-fired power sources.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin faces similar dynamics as demand for electricity will likely increase<\/a> due to hopes for growth in data centers, as well as from efforts to\u202fmake consumers turn to electric cars<\/a>, and possibly efforts\u202fto push electric home heating<\/a>\u202fas a replacement for natural gas<\/a>. Meanwhile, utilities are phasing out the former workhorse of their generating mix<\/a>, coal-fired power plants, in response to federal regulations and Evers\u2019 demand that Wisconsin cease emitting any carbon dioxide from power plants by 2050 in favor of intermittent sources such as wind and solar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zaidi also told the conference<\/a> this week that the administration hopes to spur the adoption of \u201csmall modular reactors,\u201d a technology that has sparked interest from Wisconsin\u2019s rural electric cooperative market<\/a>. Such reactors, which could be efficiently manufactured in factories rather than being expensively custom-built, have drawn interest from the U.S. Navy for powering naval bases. \u201cSMR is a technology that is not a decades-away play,\u201d Zaidi reportedly said. \u201cIt\u2019s one that companies in the United States are looking to deploy in this decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any\u00a0use or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u00a0permission.\u00a0To request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute President Mike Nichols at\u00a0mike@badgerinstitute.org<\/a>\u00a0or 262-389-8239.<\/em><\/p>\n

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