Digging into NextEra’s decision to close Duane Arnold Energy Center

On Friday, July 27, NextEra Energy Resources issued a press release titled NextEra Energy Resources and Alliant Energy agree to shorten the term of the Duane Arnold Energy Center power purchase agreement; Alliant Energy customers to save hundreds of millions of dollars. Aside: While researching this article, I learned that the word “will” is considered…

Why can’t existing nuclear plants make money in today’s electricity markets?

What does it mean when nuclear plant owners tell people that their plants are struggling to make money in competitive markets as currently structured? They are attempting to more precisely state what is often misleadingly dismissed by journalists as “nuclear plants cannot compete.” The more commonly used statement gives the impression that nuclear plants produce…

With immediate and profound changes, U.S. nuclear power can become an unexpected but welcome low carbon wedge

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, University of San Diego, and Harvard recently published a useful call to action titled U.S. nuclear power: The vanishing low-carbon wedge. For pro-nuclear observers and debaters, their conclusion may seem quite depressing. It should be a source of profound concern for all who care about climate change that, for entirely predictable…

Nuclear plant output in China poised for rapid increases in 2018-2020

The last two days in June 2018 saw the first power generation from two separate first of a kind nuclear plants in China. Taishan 1, a 1650 MWe European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) was connected to the grid at 5:59 pm local time on June 29, 2018. Less than 24 hours later, at 4:48 pm local…