New nuclear plants in US may offset planned closures

(credit: US EIA)

Although the US is on the brink of ending a long hiatus in new additions to its nuclear capacity, there's a very good chance it will see the overall capacity drop before the decade is out. That's in part because of extensive delays in the construction of some new plants and in part because some of the older, smaller nuclear plants can't be operated profitably.

Currently, there are several reactors scheduled to open over the next five years. These include the Watts Bar 2 reactor and two new reactors each at Vogtle and V.C. Summer. All of these systems are large, relatively modern designs that should produce over a GigaWatt of power from each reactor. Together, they could add 5.5GW of new nuclear capacity by 2020. The "could," however, is a rather significant part of that statement, as Vogtle and V.C. Summer have both seen a large number of construction delays. If those delays continue, it could push the projects' completion well into the next decade.

To a certain extent, that timeline is a race against closures. Last year saw the Vermont Yankee plant (600MW) shut down, and closures are planned for the 685MW Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts as well as the 675MW Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey. Pilgrim is due for refueling in 2017, but it's possible that its operator will shut it down then given how badly nuclear has been undercut by cheap natural gas and renewables.

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