American energy companies are less interested in developing nuclear power plants thanks to cheaper prices for natural gas, according to a new Business Roundtable study.
Nuclear power plants generate approximately 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, according to a 2011 Nuclear Energy Institute report. Natural gas generation, however, has surged from 10 percent to 20 percent from 2003 to 2011 according to a US Energy Information Administration report.
The report praises the “positive advances” of nuclear power plant construction in South Carolina and Georgia, noting that the nuclear power plants “are the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the United States.”
The United States still lacks a strategy to manage high level nuclear waste, the report warns, thanks to stark opposition from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev., deterring future investment in nuclear power generation technologies.
Since the 2011 nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan, increasing nuclear power plants in America has received little public support, particularly among politicians.
