Nuclear powerInstead of a renaissance, U.S. nuclear energy industry is facing tough times

Five years ago, U.S. nuclear industry executives and energy industry analysts talked about  an American nuclear renaissance, with up to twenty new reactors  to be  added to the nation’s stock.

Things are very different today, however, and the U.S. nuclear energy industry, rather than expanding, is fighting  to hold on. The Washington Post reports that the expansion of gas drilling has brought the price of natural gas down, and that  safety concerns are still high two years of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan.

Nagging worries about safety have not been assuaged by reports of safety problems in nuclear power plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Vermont. In California, two reactors are under scrutiny after reports emerged that  a major contractor and a utility company concealed information about potential cracks in a steam generator.

The Nuclear Regulation Commission (NRC) closed two reactors at the San Onofre complex in January 2012 as a result of  an investigation to determine whether the manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and the utility company, Edison International, covered up the danger of cracks in the tubes of the reactors’ steam generators.

Edison International has said it is  not at fault, and has put the blame on Mitsubishi.

The steady drop in natural gas – and the realization that fracking technology has made drilling for vast deposits of gas and oil economically attractive —  have   discouraged investor from investing in  nuclear energy.

“The natural gas issue is terrific for the U.S. economy and energy mix,” Frank Russell, senior vice president of Concentric Energy Advisors told the Washington Post. “It just isn’t so good for those of you sitting out there today.”

Dominion, the owner of the Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin, and Duke Energy, owner of Crystal River Unit 3 in Florida, have announced plans to close the plants down because of the emerging economic reality. Both plants have licenses that extend well into the future, but wind farms and natural gas are both cheaper and more popular among environmentalists, and the U.S. government continues the push for safer, renewable energy.

The NRC is also paying close attention to the reactors being built by Southern Company at its Vogtle complex in Georgia.

Originally, the financing costs of the project were decreased by the promise of federal loan  guaranteed by the Obama administration, and a Georgia state law that allowed Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern, to pass the cost onto ratepayers during construction.

Just months into the project, however, Southern announced that $900 million could be added to the subsidiary’s share of the $14 billion cost as a result of construction problems. According to an industry consultant, the issue was that the contractor put too much space between steel rebar in the foundations at the heart of the new reactors.

Now, to remedy the situation, Southern has created a “mock-up” of the site where concrete will be poured.

“NRC inspectors have identified code compliance issues with the rebar design of the basemat and walls, which delayed pouring concrete for the ‘nuclear islands,’ or bases, of the reactors,” NRC chairman Allison Macfarlane said late last month in a testimony before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Despite the setbacks, nuclear industry officials are still pushing nuclear energy as a safe and clean source of energy.

“Anyone concerned about global warming should acknowledge that if society seriously aspires to be anti-carbon, it also needs to be seriously pro-nuclear,” Thomas Farrell, chief executive of Dominion Resources, said at a recent conference in Washington.

The industry has been able to maintain its 20 percent share of U.S. electricity generation, and the NRC has renewed licenses of seventy-three plants in the United States. Operators also have improved efficiency, according to Farrell. Utility companies are also adding new backup generators at or near reactors in order to avoid the situation that occurred in Fukushima.