Rise in Demand for Electricity Prompts NYS’ Plans to Build a Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear power has returned to the center stage as the pace of the growing needs for electricity accelerates, in part due to the surge in the building of “power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers” at a time when New York City and New York State are aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In response, Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed the state’s public electric utility, New York Power Authority, “to add at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear-power generation to its aging fleet of reactors,” which would roughly power about a million homes. The state’s planned construction of a large nuclear-power facility is reportedly “the first major new U.S. plant undertaken in more than 15 years,” and should benefit from “executive orders President Trump signed in May that aim to accelerate development of nuclear-power projects.” The New York Power Authority will determine the new reactor’s design, which could be one large reactor or a collection of smaller ones that could in theory drive down costs if built in a factory setting. In advance of moving forward, New York officials are scrutinizing the problems that caused an escalation in costs and delays of the two newest U.S. reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, hoping to avoid a repeat occurrence in New York. Construction of the reactors broke ground in 2009, but only recently delivered in 2023 and 2024 with the project cost of $30 billion more than double initial estimates.
Potential sites under review include the grounds of New York’s three operating plants that are all owned or majority-owned by Constellation Energy, which is already working with the state on a federal grant that “could help with early work toward adding one or more reactors at the Nine Mile Point Clean Energy Center in Oswego.” Despite five new commercial reactors coming online in the U.S. since 1991, they have been unable to offset plant retirements, resulting in a reduction of nuclear-generation capacity by more than 4% from its 2012 peak with about 19% of the nation’s electricity currently produced by nuclear plants. In contrast, other means of electricity production are booming, including solar panels and natural gas fueled turbines. The retirement of the Indian Point nuclear plant located in Westchester County’s Buchanan neighborhood due to environmental concerns eliminated the production of about 25% of the electricity needs of New York City, requiring an increase in the burning of fossil fuels to offset the loss even though “most other energy policies in the city and the state were aimed at reducing air pollution.”