China ramping up nuclear energy as U.S. turns to wind and solar

The United States is closing older nuclear power plants and only taking baby steps toward building new ones while China, the world’s No. 2 economy, aggressively ramps up its nuclear power inventory to add 37 new reactors in the past decade.

Only one new nuclear power plant has opened in the U.S. in the past 30 years because of concerns about safety and costs.

At its current pace, China‘s capacity to generate electricity from nuclear power plants is on track to overtake France in 2025 and will be on par with the U.S. in 2030.

“China‘s nuclear rise is driven by demand,” Francois Morin, China director at the World Nuclear Association, told The Washington Times.

Like China, America is facing increasing energy needs. But rather than ramping up fossil fuels and nuclear power, the U.S. is taking steps to reduce more reliable energy sources and replace them with intermittent renewables such as wind and solar.

Twelve U.S. nuclear power reactors have been permanently shuttered since 2012, reducing the fleet to 93 operating commercial nuclear reactors.

Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Georgia, which became fully operational in July, was the first new nuclear power plant to open in the U.S. in the past 30 years.

Nuclear energy, the largest source of clean U.S. power since 1984, peaked at 20% of the U.S. electricity grid in 2020 and has started to decline, dropping to under 19% last year.

Nuclear power is forecast to make up only 12% of the U.S. energy grid by 2050, the Energy Information Administration said, while solar and wind will increase steadily to 18% by next year.

Nuclear power has become a shrinking part of the U.S. energy mix as President Biden has moved to end the use of all fossil fuels, including natural gas, in the nation’s electrical grid.

“I’m not necessarily concerned that China is building nuclear, I’m more concerned that the United States is completely taking an axe to its own ability to produce affordable, abundant, reliable energy,” Jack Spencer, senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said.

The shift away from reliable energy sources has put the U.S. grid at risk this winter, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned last month.

“The growth of intermittent resources, like solar generation, on the distribution system significantly increases load forecasting complexity and uncertainty,” Mark Olson, NERC’s manager of reliability assessments, said.

China is moving in the opposite direction, building both coal and nuclear power plants to meet the nation’s rising energy needs.

While U.S. new nuclear power plants are a rarity, China has become largely self-sufficient in constructing nuclear reactors while also adapting to and improving upon Western technology, Mr. Morin said.

China plans to begin exporting its nuclear technology, including heavy components, into the global supply chain.

China now operates 55 nuclear reactors and is building an additional 26 reactors. It has not shuttered a single nuclear power plant.

It has also surged production of new coal-fired power plants and has permitted more new coal plants in the third quarter of this year than all of 2021, according to Greenpeace. About 63% of China‘s energy is derived from coal.

Nuclear energy makes up about 5% of electricity generation in China. Factoring in the country’s growing energy demand and ramped-up production of nuclear reactors, it is expected to increase to 18% by 2050.

China considers nuclear power a green energy source. Nuclear reactors use nuclear fission to heat water and produce steam that generates electricity without emitting carbon dioxide or pollutants.

Along with wind and solar, which made up 14% of China‘s energy grid in 2022, nuclear power is part of the country’s plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and eventually cut back on polluting coal plants while increasing energy security.

“They didn’t wait for energy scarcity or supply risk to promote nuclear energy,” Mr. Morin said.

The Biden administration is incorporating nuclear power into its plan to eliminate fossil fuels from the energy grid and has spent $6 billion to keep aging nuclear power plants in operation. However, it has become nearly impossible to win federal approval for new nuclear power plant projects, which can take more than a decade to complete at a cost of billions of dollars.

Construction of the Vogtle project, which includes four reactors, began in 2009, endured repeated delays and cost roughly $30 billion, more than double the original estimate.

The project was slowed by the cumbersome permitting process, the nation’s lack of a nuclear energy supply chain and a lack of skilled workers. All of it had to be reestablished to build the plant.

Vogtle’s fourth reactor is expected to begin operations by early 2024 and when completed, the plant will be the largest generator of clean energy in the entire country.

It might be the last new U.S. nuclear power plant for a while.

Plans for the new technology of small-scale nuclear power plants have yet to succeed.

Oregon-based NuScale Power last month canceled plans to use new technology to build a 6-reactor plant in Idaho, citing construction cost concerns. The plant was supposed to replace area coal plants and provide enough electricity for 300,000 homes by 2029.

Despite hurdles, the U.S. is pledging to resuscitate its flagging nuclear power sector.

Nuclear’s future in the U.S. was bolstered last week at the United Nation’s COP28 climate change conference. The U.S. joined 21 other countries in a pledge to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, which the International Energy Agency believes is critical to reducing carbon emissions.

It’s no guarantee China, which did not sign the pledge, won’t overtake the United States.

“If the U.S. apply to themselves such a commitment, then in 2050 China and U.S. nuclear power capacities should still be comparable,” Mr. Morin said. “If such a recommendation applies for the world as a whole, but the U.S. only doubles their current capacity, then China will be far ahead. Indeed, even though China didn’t sign the declaration, the Chinese plan is to quintuple its current operating capacity by 2050.”