How to Save the Failing Nuclear Power Plants that Generate Half of America’s Clean Electricity - By David Roberts

With no price on carbon, here’s how states are keeping nuclear power plants open.

Nuclear power currently provides about 20 percent of US electricity — and 50 percent of its carbon-free electricity.  Insofar as the US economy has decarbonized (carbon emissions have been falling, fitfully, for more than a decade), nuclear power gave it a head start.  Nuclear plants were not built because they produce carbon-free power, but since then, it has become a rather valuable feature.

Valuable to climate hawks, anyway.  But not to the market.  Nuclear power plants are getting killed in US markets.  Five have retired in the past five years, and 12 reactors at nine plants have announced plans to retire ahead of schedule.  That represents gigawatts of carbon-free electricity that new renewables will have to cover for (rather than making progress).

These plants can be kept running, but it will take advocacy and organizing.  These are live battles, ongoing in states like Ohio and Arizona.  Experience at the state level thus far suggests that only an alliance of nuclear and renewable supporters can win them.

Let’s start with a quick review of the state of existing nuclear plants; then we’ll look into the tools available to help them stay alive.

Read more at How to Save the Failing Nuclear Power Plants that Generate Half of America’s Clean Electricity