Things change; Utilities consider the next nuclear order

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Power Engineering; (United States)

OSTI ID:5852357

Smock, R W

This paper reports that it has been announced by the Nuclear Power Oversight Committee (NPOC) that the electric utility industry believes that it should order and start building new nuclear plants within the next several years. NPOC, primarily a nuclear utility organization, released a strategic plan that outlined the steps necessary for an order in the mid-1900s so that the next new nuclear plant can be operating by about the year 2000. That may not seem like news, but if you think about it, the announcement does represent a change. It's been a long time since any utility executive was willing to talk favorably about ordering a new nuclear plant. The most common comments has been, no utility manager in his right mind would consider new nuclear capacity the way things are now. Well, things change. At least some utility executives are now thinking the unthinkable. Why the change There are a lot of reasons, but there seem to be two major ones. The first is the apparent need for a lot of new baseload capacity in the 1990s that can be met only by new coal or nuclear power plants. The second is the growing number of environmental obstacles to new coal-fired capacity. The recently passed Clean Air Act and the increasing concern over global warming are forcing utilities to reconsider nuclear power as an option. To be sure, the Nuclear Power Oversight Committee does not speak for the entire utility industry. Most utilities are probably still extremely leery of ordering new nuclear capacity. However, NPOC's members include top executives of 11 large utility companies and even if they're only speaking for themselves, the announcement is significant. The candidates for ordering new nuclear plants are probably limited to the large nuclear utilities, which is a relatively small number of companies.

• OSTI ID: 5852357
• Journal Information: Power Engineering; (United States), Journal Name: Power Engineering; (United States) Vol. 95:1; ISSN POENA; ISSN 0032-5961
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
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22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
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AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
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ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY
ENERGY SOURCES
ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
FOSSIL FUELS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
FUELS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
INDUSTRY
LAWS
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PLANNING
POLLUTION ABATEMENT
POLLUTION LAWS
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
POWER PLANTS
REGULATIONS
SAFETY ENGINEERING
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
US CLEAN AIR ACT
US NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT