How to Strengthen Climate Change, Energy Policy with New Nuclear Plants T

N U C L E A R
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NOVEMBER 2009
PHOTO COURTESY OF SEN. JOHN KERRYʼS OFFICE
How to Strengthen Climate Change,
Expand Nuclear,
Energy Policy with New Nuclear Plants Survey Says
T
hree-quarters of the respondents in a recent
national poll believe that emission-free nuclear
energy should be expanded as one way to reduce
greenhouse gases and prevent global climate
change.
Eighty-four percent think we should take advantage of all low-carbon energy sources, including
nuclear:
“We should take advantage of all
low-carbon energy sources, including
nuclear, hydro and renewables to
produce electricity while limiting
greenhouse gas emissions.”
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduce the Senate climate bill, which
recognizes the role that nuclear energy must play in a carbon-free future.
W
hite House and congressional leaders working to provide the nation with a secure energy future while reducing greenhouse gas emissions
recognize that nuclear energy is a necessary part of
a balanced, clean energy portfolio.
There is a new nuclear era coming
and we need to be sure we do it right.”
– Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
At an October town hall meeting in New
Orleans, President Barack Obama said, “There's no
reason why technologically we can't employ nuclear
energy in a safe and effective way. Japan does it and
France does it and it doesn't have greenhouse gas
emissions, so it would be stupid for us not to do
that in a much more effective way.”
In an op-ed in The New York Times, Sens. John
Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) wrote,
“While we invest in renewable energy sources like
wind and solar, we must also take advantage of
nuclear power, our single largest contributor of
emissions-free power.”
Nuclear energy already produces 72 percent
of America’s emission-free electricity. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency predicts that to
meet the carbon-reduction provisions in the climate
change bill passed last June in the House, 187 new
nuclear power plants will be needed by 2050. The
U.S. Energy Information Administration says that
69 new reactors will be necessary by 2030.
In the absence of this major expansion of
nuclear energy in the next 30 years, the costs of
electricity, natural gas and reduction of carbon
84%
Agree
The survey also found continuing high levels of
support for renewing the operating licenses of
nuclear power plants and for preparing to build
new reactors:
■ 80 percent believe that nuclear energy will play
an important role in meeting U.S. energy needs in
the future.
■ 82 percent support license renewal for nuclear
power plants that continue to meet federal safety
standards.
■ 59 percent said the United States should
definitely build more nuclear power plants.
Climate Change Policy on page 2
Look for Insight Web Extra Online — WWW.NEI.ORG
Expand Nuclear on page 6
What we’re ultimately looking
for is to include the cost of climate
protection into the marketplace...”
– John Rowe, CEO, Exelon Corp.
Climate Change Policy from page 1
emissions will rise significantly, these analyses
conclude.
The climate bill in the Senate contains
provisions for nuclear energy development.
A statement in the bill—introduced by Kerry and
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)—reads, “It is the
policy of the United States, given the importance
of transitioning to a clean energy, low-carbon
economy, to facilitate the continued development
and growth of a safe and clean nuclear energy
industry ... .” Detailed provisions on this issue
have not yet been fully developed, however.
The electric utility industry and the Nuclear
Energy Institute support a comprehensive package
of nuclear energy provisions in the bill. NEI’s
President and CEO Marv Fertel says, “If you want
to address climate change and produce electricity,
nuclear has got to be a significant part of the equation. Inclusion of a meaningful nuclear energy title
by itself doesn’t get you to an agreement in
Congress on climate change legislation. But at
the same time, you can’t get there without it.”
For nuclear energy to meet the expectations of
the EPA and EIA analyses, the Senate bill must be
strengthened to include the following provisions:
■ An effective, long-term financing platform is
necessary to ensure deployment of clean energy
technologies in the numbers required and to
accelerate the flow of private investment in clean
energy options.
■ Standardization in reactor design and experience gained from licensing the first advanced reactors should allow the NRC to reduce licensing
schedules to two years. This can be achieved by
eliminating redundancies and duplication in the
licensing process and improving transparency,
all without eliminating public participation.
Specifically, we should build
100 new nuclear plants in the next
20 years...”
– Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)
■ Federal tax stimulus would accelerate capital
investment in new nuclear power plants and in the
critical manpower and infrastructure necessary to
build new nuclear power plants in the numbers
required to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
hinese President Hu Jintao told the United
Nations that his country intends to use nuclear
power “vigorously”—alongside energy efficiency
and renewables—to combat global greenhouse gas
emissions.
The recent U.N. Summit on Climate Change
was called by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in
preparation for talks scheduled for December in
Copenhagen. Nuclear energy is expected to be
included in discussions of a “clean development
mechanism” that would allow developed nations
to participate in, and take credit for, emission
reductions in the developing world as a result of
using carbon-free nuclear energy.
One of the major items of contention for developed nations has been the difficulty in getting
developing nations such as China and India to
commit to measurable greenhouse gas reductions
as their economies expand. China last year overtook the United States in total carbon emissions,
even though China’s emissions remain low on a
per-capita basis.
Developing countries have so far balked at making firm carbon reduction commitments, which
they say could slow their economic growth.
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNITED NATIONS
China, India Make Nuclear Energy, Climate Change Linkage
C
President Hu Jintao at the U.N., announcing
China’s plans to mitigate climate change—
with a healthy dose of nuclear expansion.
However, recognizing the importance of economic
cooperation with the developed world for their
own advancement, both India and China are now
making some commitments, albeit soft ones.
Like China, India also is explicitly connecting its
aggressive nuclear energy growth scenarios to
greenhouse gas reduction
goals. At an international conference on nuclear energy in
New Delhi, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said that if
MANMOHAN SINGH
India “thinks big and manages
its nuclear expansion program well,” the country
could have as much as 470 gigawatts of nuclear
capacity by 2050, larger than the present world
nuclear capacity of 370 gigawatts. “This will
sharply reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and
will be a major contribution to global efforts to
combat climate change,” he said.
China and India together account for the majority of planned new reactors as well as those under
construction. China has 16 reactors under construction, and India six. China is expected to
build 40 new reactors by 2020; India, 17.
Major growth is also projected in Russia, with
14 new reactors, and Korea, with 10. In the
United States, four to eight reactors could be built
by 2020, with Britain and France adding two each.
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n a quiet business park on the outskirts of
Philadelphia, a round-the-clock operation quietly
keeps the lights on, businesses running and factories working in some of the most populous areas
from the Midwest to the Eastern Seaboard.
PJM Interconnection, headquartered at Valley
Forge, Pa., operates the electricity transmission
system for 51 million people in 13 states and the
District of Columbia—from Chicago eastward to
New Jersey and as far south as North Carolina.
More than 1,500 electricity generators feed power
into this market, including 29 nuclear power
plants.
As a power pool originally formed in 1927,
it was named the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Interconnection in 1956. Now the
world’s largest competitive wholesale electricity
market, PJM’s objective is to manage the high-voltage electric grid and coordinate the movement of
wholesale electricity in the region.
Monitoring and maintaining this flow with zero
error tolerance, while simultaneously running an
efficient electricity market, makes its technicians
the air-traffic controllers of the electric industry.
These “energy traffic control operators” manage
the flow of energy by dispatching electricity from
various power plants in the grid according to price,
cheapest first, and availability, as demand rises and
falls through any given day. Daily energy price
bids from all 1,500 generation units are received
the previous day.
Nuclear generation prices usually are among
the lowest bids.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) sets and enforces PJM’s operating and reliability standards for the electric grid. FERC also
oversees PJM’s second main task—to operate a fair,
open and impartial wholesale energy market.
The electricity grid under the care of PJM has a
predominant west-to-east flow, from the lowercost and more abundant electricity generators in
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PHOTO COURTESY OF PJM INTERCONNECTION
Energy Traffic
Controllers Keep
The Lights On
I
PJM controls the flow of electricity for more than 50 million people in the Northeast U.S. from this
high-tech control room. Nuclear energy supplies 35% of PJM’s power.
the Midwest to the big power-thirsty cities along
the East Coast.
Twenty-nine nuclear power plants, with a total
capacity of 30,500 megawatts, supply about 35
percent of the electricity used in the PJM system.
Being among the lowest cost producers in the
market, nuclear power plants seldom set the
price in real-time energy markets. They are baseload generators—that is, they run constantly to
supply electricity—and receive the price set by
other, more expensive units, such as natural gasor coal-fired generation. Having a large, reliable
and low-cost base of constant electric generation
gives PJM the ability to use other power sources
to respond to the peaks and troughs in electricity
demand so that the power produced always
exactly matches consumers’ use of electricity.
According to PJM’s Ray Dotter, the difference
in market price and generation cost helps nuclear
plant owners achieve the economic value of their
plants and allows for operational and capital
improvements that increase plant availability.
The other major sources of baseload power
are coal plants. Coal and nuclear energy together
comprise 59 percent of PJM’s installed generation, but they supply more than 90 percent of the
energy produced in the system.
There are also 2,200 installed megawatts of
wind generation in the PJM grid, though in a
typical daytime period, only about 400 megawatts
is generated. The intermittent nature of wind
power—and the fact that the greatest generation
from wind typically occurs at night during periods
of lowest demand—means that wind generators
sometimes pay PJM to buy their electricity.
In anticipation of national climate change
policy that would set a price for carbon emission
allowances and credits, PJM is positioning itself
to be part of a new low-carbon energy market.
In PJM’s near future, the Trans-Allegheny
Interstate transmission line from southwest
Pennsylvania to the Maryland-Virginia-D.C.
region will better connect PJM’s electric generation sources to the national capital area, helping
to maintain reliable power supplies and accommodate growth in that region. Completion is
expected in 2011.
Further in the future, plug-in hybrid vehicles
could place a large-scale demand on the grid.
PJM’s executive director Frank Koza says, “As
many as 25 million cars could be added to the
PJM system without the need for additional
generating capacity—all at an equivalent cost
of 60 cents a gallon of gasoline.”
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3
he fast-growing need for global water supplies
could be met by desalination, a process by
which fresh water is extracted from the oceans.
Reliable, low-emission nuclear power is an ideal
power source for this process.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says
that more than a fifth of humanity is critically short
of access to fresh water. Droughts plague large
parts of the United States, and the Federal government projects that at least 36 states will face
chronic water shortages within five years.
One solution is to turn to a much larger source
of water—the sea.
Only five percent of our planet’s water is directly suitable for human consumption or irrigation;
the rest is in the world’s oceans. In places like
Israel and the United Arab Emirates, where fresh
water is hardest to come by, desalination of sea
water is being conducted on increasingly large
scales. The largest U.S. plant is in Tampa, Florida,
with an output of 25 million gallons per day.
Desalination is a relatively simple process that
entails separating the salt and minerals from sea
water. There are two main methods: distillation
and reverse osmosis.
In natural osmosis, the saltier water inside plant
cells draws in purer water from the soil through
PHOTO COURTESY OF IDE TECHNOLOGIES
Nuclear Desalination Helps Meet Global Fresh Water Demand
T
This seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant at Ashkelon, Israel, provides 330,000
cubic meters a day of fresh water—or 100 million cubic meters a year.
the cell membranes, equalizing the concentration
of solutions. In reverse osmosis, electric pumps
reverse the natural direction of water flow. In
other words, pure water is obtained by “pumping”
it out of a salty solution through a synthetic membrane against its osmotic pressure. The original
“raw water” meanwhile gets more concentrated
and is eventually rejected.
Both distillation and reverse osmosis are very
energy-intensive processes. Most desalination
plants use fossil fuel-based power. Increasing
attention is being paid to using nuclear reactors,
given their high reliability and zero emissions of
greenhouse gases. Nuclear-powered desalination
has long been used on U.S. Navy submarines.
India, Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan use desalination plants linked to nuclear reactors. Small and
medium reactors are suitable for this application.
Small-Sized Reactors Could Serve Many Uses
A
new class of small nuclear reactors, suitable
for a variety of applications and needs, is gaining the attention of potential customers worldwide.
Three trends favor the development of small
reactors worldwide—the increasing need for electricity to drive economic development, a growing
connection between economic security and energy security, and mounting global concern about
climate change. Small and medium reactors—
from 10 megawatts to 500 megawatts—find a spot
at the intersection of these concerns. They could
be ideal for smaller nations with less advanced
infrastructures like robust national grids and
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manufacturing capacities and expertise.
An increasing number of countries believe
energy security can be achieved through nuclear
energy technology and that, unlike fossil fuels, the
international trade in uranium is stable and nonvolatile, says Paul Genoa, NEI’s director of policy
development.
Small reactors now being offered by companies such as NuScale, Babcock & Wilcox and
Westinghouse use fundamental reactor technology
that has been enhanced by technological development. Genoa noted their value as options for
replacing carbon-emitting electricity generators
and as sources to help meet electricity demand for
new uses, such as off-grid power generation,
powering hybrid electric automobiles, hydrogen
production and water purification.
Small reactor designs can be divided into two
categories: those that generate electricity as their
primary function, and those with other uses.
Westinghouse is developing a series of small
reactors to meet this variety of applications.
Phil Hildebrand of the Idaho National Lab
said one of these designs, a high temperature
gas-cooled reactor, could replace natural gas to
generate heat for industrial processes such as
petrochemical refining and fertilizer production.
Small Reactors on page 5
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State Initiatives Supporting New Reactor Development
I
Small Reactors from page 4
In the near term, small nuclear plant development would be used to generate electricity.
Babcock & Wilcox has attracted attention for its
mPower reactor, a 125-megawatt modular unit.
Individual mPower units can be built and brought
online as others are being assembled, allowing
power companies to meet electricity demand
incrementally.
B&W’s Craig Hanson says the civil nuclear
industry can benefit from its existing capabilities
supplying small reactors for the U.S. Navy.
Reduced size translates to reduced cost, which
can decrease long-term investment needs for utilities with smaller market capitalizations. Moreover,
smaller plants can overcome siting issues by
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Wisconsin legislators are expected to review
the state’s prohibition on new nuclear plants
in coming weeks, either through a standalone repeal or through adoption of a comprehensive package of recommendations from
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s Climate Change
Task Force, which has called for ending the ban.
Several states are aggressively acting to address
the issue of financing the construction of new
nuclear energy plants. This is a difficult issue
because, although nuclear energy provides affordable electricity for many years, permitting and construction costs are high. On the federal level, this
can be mitigated by the use of loan guarantees,
which reduce the cost of financing, and in turn,
lower costs to consumers.
States can also reduce the cost of financing—
and save money for consumers—by allowing utilities to recover costs for new plants while they are
under construction. In exchange for a slight
increase in customers’ monthly electric bills, a new
nuclear plant’s final cost can be reduced significantly and spread out in smaller cost increases. As
a result, customers receive cheaper, cleaner energy
from nuclear energy facilities for at least 60 years.
Georgia enacted legislation in April allowing
such an arrangement, at a cost of about $1.50 per
repowering older coal-fired power plants, using
the industrial infrastructure already in place and
effecting a one-to-one swap of a carbon-emission
producing plant with one that produces no emis-
PHOTO COURTESY OF WESTINGHOUSE
ncreasingly, states recognizing the benefits of
nuclear energy have been passing various types
of legislation and implementing regulations to
support construction of new nuclear plants.
■ The Western Governors’ Association supports
expansion of the federal loan guarantee program
“to allow future private-sector investment and
high-quality jobs for new nuclear projects.”
■ In Texas, legislation gives the Public Utility
Commission authority to regulate decommissioning trust funds for up to six new nuclear energy
plants under construction before 2015.
■ In Utah, the Renewable Energy Development
Act provides incentives to develop renewable energy projects—and defines nuclear as a renewable
energy source. Utah Sen. Bob Bennett (R) demonstrated support for such projects when he helped
secure about $500,000 for nuclear research this
year at Utah State University.
Western states are not the only ones taking a
look at nuclear energy. There have been efforts
throughout the country to overturn 1970s-era
moratoria against new plant construction. Nuclear
ban repeals passed at least one legislative chamber
in Kentucky and Minnesota this year, and lawmakers in Illinois, West Virginia, California and Hawaii
also introduced similar repeal measures.
Westinghouse’s 335-megawatt IRIS reactor.
Several states (in orange) have legislation or
regulations, or both, to support construction of
proposed nuclear facilities, which are represented
on the map with stars.
month to each customer. Similar legislation was
adopted in Kansas, Florida and South Carolina and
considered in Oklahoma, Indiana and Missouri.
In September, the South Carolina Public
Service Commission (PSC) granted a request by
the South Carolina Electric & Gas utility for a 1.1
percent increase in retail electric rates to help pay
for two new nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer.
And in October, the Florida PSC approved
applications for two utilities to continue their
investment in new nuclear electric generation
that will power a total of 2.7 million homes.
sions and has a similar capacity to produce electricity.
NuScale’s 45-megawatt units use well-understood light water reactor technology. The units
could be used to repower older fossil plants, to
supply auxiliary or emergency power for military
bases or other off-grid remote locations, or to
stabilize the electric grid for intermittent sources
such as wind and solar energy.
Hyperion’s 25-megawatt design can be
installed underground to produce electricity
undisturbed for seven to 10 years.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
is monitoring the increasing interest in small
reactors and is building its licensing capacity as
market needs are better identified.
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5
newly established world-record run at the
Three Mile Island (TMI-1) reactor in Pennsylvania is the most recent in a series of achievements that demonstrate the world-class reliability
and safety of U.S. nuclear energy facilities.
TMI-1 became the world’s first pressurized
water reactor to exceed 700 days of continuous
operation when it paused for refueling on Oct.
26 after a 705-day run of nonstop electricity production.
“We come to work every day with safe and
reliable operations as our primary goal,” said
William Noll, site vice president at Three Mile
Island. “TMI-1’s world-class performance is a
tribute to the skill, dedication and teamwork displayed by the people who work here.”
This is the second U.S. pressurized water
reactor this year to set a world record for reliable
operation. In February, the Calvert Cliffs 2 plant
in Maryland ran continuously for 692 days.
Among U.S. boiling water reactors, six have operated for more than 700 days, including LaSalle 1
in Illinois, which set the world record at 739
days in February 2006.
Located in 31 states, 104 commercial reactors
produce electricity for one in every five homes
and businesses in America. The majority of U.S.
nuclear plants operate on an 18-month cycle that
enables them to coordinate refueling outages
during the fall or spring, when demand for electricity is typically lower.
“The safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear
energy facilities is second to none,” said Marvin
Fertel, president and chief executive officer at
the Nuclear Energy Institute. “The world-class
reliability of America’s reactors and an excellent
industrial safety record demonstrate that our
industry is focused on safety.”
The ability of nuclear plants to operate safely
and continuously from one refueling outage to
the next has made nuclear the most reliable
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PHOTO COURTESY OF EXELON CORP.
U.S. Nuclear Plants
Continue WorldClass Performance
A
Exelon Nuclear’s Three Mile Island Unit 1 broke the world record for 705 continuous days of operation.
Until it shut down for refueling October 29, it had been running nonstop since November 21, 2007.
source of electricity. With an average annual
capacity factor of 91.5 percent, nuclear power
plants are well ahead of coal (71 percent), natural gas (42 percent), wind (31 percent), hydro
(27 percent) and solar (21 percent).
Capacity factor is measured as the ratio of a
Expand Nuclear from page 1
■ 68 percent said that a new reactor would be
acceptable at the site of the nearest plant that is
already operating.
■ 72 percent agree that U.S. nuclear power plants
are “safe and secure.”
The survey also found more than half of respondents—61 percent—favor the use of nuclear energy;
36 percent are opposed. Those strongly in favor
outnumber those strongly opposed by 29 percent
to 18 percent.
The survey also found that the public is mostly
unaware of current sources of electricity. Coal,
natural gas and nuclear energy are the three top
U.S. electricity sources. While nearly two-thirds
of the respondents correctly named natural gas
as one of the top three, fewer than half think
of coal as a major source and only 31 percent
mentioned nuclear energy.
plant’s actual production of electricity to the theoretical production if the plant operated at full
power all of the time.
In 2008, U.S. nuclear plants achieved half of
the top 50 capacity factors among the world’s
439 nuclear plants.
U.S Electric Generation by Source
Natural
Gas
Nuclear
21%
20%
Coal
49%
Hydro 6%
Wind 1%
Oil 1%
Solar < 0.5%
Other 2%
The three sources used least are solar, oil and
wind, with each contributing 1 percent or less of
electricity production. However, 57 percent of the
respondents listed oil as one of the top sources,
26 percent named solar and 22 percent cited wind.
The survey was conducted in October by
Bisconti Research Inc. with GfK Roper. A nationally
representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults was
interviewed by telephone, with a margin of error
of plus or minus three percentage points.
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Nuclear Facilities Prove Economic Boon to the Carolinas
T
he Carolinas’ nuclear energy generating
facilities provide over 37,000 jobs, more than
$2 billion in payroll income and more than
$750 million in state and local taxes, according
to a new study.
“Our nuclear cluster is both an important
source of energy to residents and businesses,
as well as a major player in Carolinas’ job and
income creation,” said Clemson University’s Mark
Henry, author of the study published by the South
Carolina Council on Competitiveness.
The report, “The Economic Impact of the
Nuclear Cluster in the Carolinas,” found that the
nuclear energy industry in North Carolina and
South Carolina provides:
■ 37,330 jobs, including “induced” goods-andservices related employment
■ more than $750 million in state and local
tax revenues
■ $2.3 billion in labor income.
The study shows these benefits come from
both private sector firms and public sector participation. There are seven nuclear energy facilities
in the region, owned by three utilities—Duke
Energy, Progress Energy and SCANA. These are
supported by major firms in the nuclear supply
chain, including engineering and construction
services such as AREVA NP, the Shaw Group,
Fluor and URS; nuclear equipment manufacturers
such as GE Hitachi, Westinghouse and Siemens;
other industrial supply firms such as valve, motor
and pump makers, maintenance companies;
and service suppliers such as security firms
and laboratories.
In total nuclear electricity generated last year,
North Carolina and South Carolina were among
the top six states in the nation. Combined, they
produced more than 11 percent of the nation’s
nuclear energy. South Carolina generated
51 percent of its electricity from nuclear
energy, and North Carolina 32 percent.
Two major public-sector activities in the
region’s nuclear cluster are at the Savannah River
and Barnwell sites, both of which include private
sector participation. Barnwell hosts a low-level
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Charlotte, N.C., is among the localities that have benefited from the tens of thousands of jobs, $2 billion
in payroll income and $750 million in tax revenues provided by the local nuclear industry.
radioactive waste disposal site operated by ChemNuclear under a South Carolina state license.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River
Site is a major source of defense-related and commercial nuclear activities, including the processing of nuclear waste into fuel for commercial
reactors. The site also houses the Savannah River
National Laboratory.
The three utilities in the region are planning
to build as many as eight new nuclear reactors on
existing and new sites. SCANA already has site
work under way for two new reactors at its V.C.
Summer plant in Jenkinsville, S.C. Projected
growth in both the private and public nuclear
sectors is expected to expand employment in
the region by 46 percent and income by about
34 percent over the next 20 years. These could
add up to an additional 17,000 jobs and
$1.7 billion in wages and tax income during
that period.
Now Hear This ...
I hope we can come to a reasonable compromise that advances nuclear power
and allows us to finally put a price on carbon pollution. … Nuclear power’s energy
security and environmental benefits have earned this industry an important place
at the table.”
—Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)
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7
he Nature Conservancy confirms that nuclear
energy uses the least land per unit of energy
generated and recommends new nuclear power
plants as a way to achieve carbon emissions
reductions while using land efficiently.
The group’s study quantifies the likely increase
in land use between now and 2030 as the United
States develops new energy sources while attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The study bases its conclusions on the federal
Energy Information Administration’s forecast of
energy production under recently enacted policies,
including the 2007 renewable fuel standard, and
under various scenarios to set limits on carbon
emissions.
The Nature Conservancy says that an increase
in land use for new energy production is
inevitable in the next decades, and suggests that
one way to mitigate “energy sprawl” is a flexible
strategy that recognizes the low-carbon benefits
of nuclear energy and includes the construction
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Wind - 30
Solar - 15
Nuclear - 1
PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT
Nature Conservancy: Nuclear Plants Protect Against Sprawl
T
A typical nuclear plant takes up 1 square mile in area. Nuclear energy has the lowest impact to
natural habitat of any energy source—1/15th that of solar and 1/30th of wind energy.
of new nuclear plants. Other ways the group
suggests limiting sprawl include reusing existing
energy facility sites.
Part of this philosophy, which the Nature
Editor
Christopher Charles
Editorial Specialist
Andrea Korte
Graphic Designer
Rafy Levy
Illustrator
Calvin Haden
Conservancy calls “Energy by Design,” is an
emphasis on efficiency and conservation, which
would decrease the capacity and land needs of
any new energy development.
Photographer
Anna Gomez
Contributing Editors
Mark Flanagan
Lynne Neal
Deanne Perez
Thaddeus Swanek
Nuclear Energy Insight is published bi-monthly by the Nuclear Energy Institute for policymakers and others interested in nuclear
issues. NEI is the policy organization of the nuclear energy industry. © 2009
Nuclear Energy Insight and Web Extra content are available on NEI’s Web site at www.nei.org. For more information, call 202.739.8000.
PJM Interconnection operates the electricity
transmission system for 51 million people in
the Midwest and Eastern U.S. ...... See page 3
The Carolinas’ nuclear energy facilities
provide tens of thousands of jobs to
the area. ............................... See page 7
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PA I D
WASHINGTON, DC
PERMIT 827