Nuclear power poised to help meet demands of climate change legislation

Editor's note: This article is indicative of what we will be hearing from the nuclear power industry as it attempts to shape legislation that will enable it to build new reactors at public expense....HW

More than a century ago, the famed journalist and writer Ambrose Bierce stated, "Electricity seems destined to play a most important part in the arts and industries. The question of its economical application to some purposes is still unsettled, but experiment has already proved that it will propel a streetcar better than a gas."

Bierce's prediction is staggering in its understatement.
Today, the electric power sector is a $340 billion industry that employs approximately 400,000 workers and constitutes 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Electricity's reach, of course, has long since eclipsed streetcars. It propels virtually the entire economy and is so vital that there is a discernible statistical correlation between a nation's reliability of electricity supply and its mortality rate.
Electricity has long since become an inextricable part of our lives. Even with improved efficiency measures, our nation's need for electricity - including reliable, carbon-free sources such as nuclear power plants - continues to climb.
A host of recent analyses has concluded that the nation's use of nuclear energy must increase in the coming decades to meet rising electricity demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in its analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, found that the contribution of low- or zero-carbon energy technologies to electricity supply must increase to 38 percent by 2050 from the current 14 percent. An additional 180 nuclear power plants (104 operate today) will be needed to meet the legislation's emissions targets, the EPA said.
Similarly, the National Academy of Sciences concluded in its July report "America's Energy Future" that "(S)ubstantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector are achievable over the next two to three decades through a portfolio approach" that includes nuclear energy. The report identifies advanced nuclear energy plants as one of two "key technologies" that must be demonstrated during the next decade "to allow for their widespread deployment starting around 2020."
At present, 25 new reactors are in the federal permitting process, with four to eight plants expected to be completed by 2017. The industry plans to invest $8 billion in just the next few years - on top of billions already spent - to be in a position to start construction of carbon-free nuclear plants in 2011-2012.
Nuclear energy and other clean energy technologies can help jumpstart our economy and make America a world leader in low-carbon energy. American manufacturers will benefit because construction of new nuclear power plants will create demand for thousands of components and commodities like concrete and steel.
Nuclear energy's good-paying, long-term employment opportunities already are helping to fuel a transition in America's energy landscape. The nuclear energy industry is one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy - expanding rather than contracting in communities like Chattanooga, Tenn.; Newport News, Va.; Cheswick, Pa.; and Lake Charles, La.
As the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments stated in a pro-nuclear resolution it adopted unanimously in August, "Clean nuclear energy is an engine for economic growth." Construction of a new reactor by itself constitutes four years of employment for as many as 2,400 skilled craft workers, with 400 to 700 permanent jobs once the plant starts operating.
No single technology can independently slow and reverse increases in carbon emissions. But these studies confirm nuclear energy is an indispensable part of a comprehensive approach that, thankfully, is identified in energy and climate change bills pending in Congress.
Provisions in the House and Senate bills are necessary if nuclear energy is to expand at the level necessary to meet both electricity demand and reductions in greenhouse gases.
The legislation in both chambers would establish a Clean Energy Deployment Administration, which would function as a permanent financing platform to provide loans, loan guarantees and other credit support for clean-energy technologies, including new nuclear power plants, wind and biomass.
Congress should approve additional policy elements that will speed the transition to advanced reactors and help meet near- to mid-term carbon reduction goals. These include:
• Ensuring that the volume of loan guarantees available for new reactors is comparable to other carbon-free electricity sources and refining the Department of Energy loan guarantee program in key areas that are slowing implementation of the program;
• Providing new tax stimulus for investment in new nuclear energy facilities, new nuclear component manufacturing and workforce development;
• Expanding the existing production tax credit to all new reactors that produce electricity by 2021;
• Reducing the time to market for advanced reactors to six years from nine to 10 years by enacting clarifications to ensure that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process works as intended; and
• Mandating creation of a blue ribbon commission to re-examine management options for used nuclear fuel, and establishing incentives for state and communities to develop consolidated storage facilities for used nuclear fuel.
America needs a commonsense, balanced approach as we shift toward low-carbon sources of energy. Diversity of clean electricity is essential not just to protecting our environment, but also to promoting energy security and reliability.
Nuclear energy is a proven source that generates one-fifth of U.S. electricity reliably and affordably.
In the coming decades, we will be challenged to simultaneously meet rising electricity demand and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. To meet this challenge, Congress must establish a comprehensive and sustainable national policy that supports the development of technology-based, zero-carbon solutions like nuclear energy, solar and wind that can be implemented in the near term and are affordable for consumers.

Fertel is president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute.