77. Is Nuclear Power Poised for a Resurgence?

Is Nuclear Power Poised for a Resurgence? Since 1990, nuclear power has consistently supplied about 19% to 20% of the electricity used in the U.S. However, very few nuclear plants have been added to the U.S. fleet over that time. Currently, the only nuclear project in the U.S. is Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle expansion, which is expected to add two new reactors to the grid by the end of next year. Still, there are 50 reactors under construction around the world—12 of them in China—and several countries are considering adding more. “There has been a fundamental shift in the thinking around the world. As climate change has become front and center as the number one issue globally—environmental issue and societal issue—the recognition that nuclear can and should play a part in helping us overcome the climate change problems has shifted a lot of thinking in governments that I talk to around the world, but also even with people that are environmental-minded—people that have been, in the past, anti-nuclear—and start seeing that nuclear now is and should be part of the solution. So, it’s a very exciting time,” George Borovas, head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s nuclear practice and managing partner of the firm’s Tokyo office, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. In the future, Borovas said he expects China to continue building nuclear plants at least on the scale it is today, and perhaps at an even greater rate. “I think it’s going to be very easy for them to keep replicating, especially because they have such tremendous needs for energy,” he said. Nuclear power’s emissions-free aspect also provides a huge benefit for the Chinese, which has had air quality problems in a lot of its industrialized cities. “So, I do think that China is going to continue with its new build program very aggressively, and we're starting to see also China becoming more of an exporting nation for nuclear technology and services around the world.” Schedule delays and cost overruns have long been issues for the nuclear industry, but Borovas suggest