The current and anticipated closure of U.S. nuclear power plants is a troubling development as states eye meeting their carbon dioxide emissions reductions requirements under the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Monday.
The nuclear industry and its supporters today tout zero-carbon atomic energy facilities as a means of addressing the climate threat posed by coal and other carbon emitters. Moniz appeared to support this case in his presentation to a workshop on the future of nuclear energy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“There is now this irony … as we have this set of closings, especially in certain parts of the country, just as we have the states coming forward with their implementation plans, and having their options narrowed is not the way to approach that,” he said.
The Clean Power Plan requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set carbon emissions reductions targets, which means reduced emphasis on energy produced by coal-fired plants. The plan is on hold while a massive lawsuit led by 27 states makes its way through the federal legal system. Should the rule survive, states would have to submit their final plans no later than September 2018, with accounting for emissions reductions to start in 2022.
Meanwhile, as of June of this year, nuclear power plant operators had since October 2012 shuttered or announced plans to close 14 reactors at 11 facilities, as reported by Power magazine. Among those due to shut down in coming years in the face of low natural gas prices and other economic and technical challenges are the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s last operational atomic energy facility; the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts; and the Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station in Illinois.
More broadly, nuclear power is among the options for addressing climate change, Moniz made clear. But major decisions on replacing lost low-carbon power sources will have to be made starting in five years, ahead of a major wave of reactor closures around 2030.
“We need to develop a reliable, resilient, decarbonized electricity system. It’s critical to meeting environmental, economic, and security goals,” he said. “In fact, a decarbonized electricity system is in any credible model kind of hte lead horse for a deeply decarbonized energy system. But frankly, what that system will or should look like is extremely unclear.”