Nuclear resurgence: NRC receives applications for 15 new reactors

FORT WORTH, Texas — The nation's nuclear energy industry, all but stagnant for three decades, is quietly building toward a resurgence, with more than 2 dozen new reactors on the drawing board in 15 states.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received applications to build 15 new reactors in eight states. Later this year, plants in seven other states plan to seek permits for a dozen more reactors.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is already reviewing license applications from plants in eight states to build 13 new reactors, and it just received another application for two more. Later this year, plants in seven other states plan to seek permits for a dozen more reactors.

The first could be built and operating by 2016.

While 104 commercial nuclear reactors remain in operation in the U.S., the NRC has not approved a construction license for a new reactor since 1978.

The nuclear revival is far from a done deal, however. Companies still must arrange financing and will need federal loan guarantees and states' approval to hike rates to pay for construction, if those loans are to be affordable.

The current push is being driven by soaring demand for electricity nationwide — about 25 percent more electric-generating capacity will be needed by 2030, according to industry experts. And utility companies say environmental and regulatory hurdles have stalled their efforts to build more coal-fired plants.

Economic incentives included in a 2005 energy bill passed by Congress are another factor, encouraging utilities to build new, advanced nuclear reactors that produce no greenhouse gases but cost billions to build.

"We're talking about a trillion-dollar investment in the nation's power infrastructure," said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's policy organization. "That's a very substantial undertaking in providing the electricity that we all depend on.

"We have to have nuclear power as part of that," he said. "We need renewables, but by themselves, that's not going to get us where we need to be."

But critics say solar, wind and other "greener" electricity-producing alternatives can play a bigger role and that nuclear reactors are expensive and dangerous. Some residents near the proposed sites have protested, saying nuclear plants could become terrorist targets. Opponents also are concerned that while the updated reactors called for in the plans are used in Europe, they are untried in the United States.