Bullet Points: Nuclear Energy: 2006 Status and Outlook

NUCLEAR ENERGY: STATUS AND OUTLOOK
Admiral Frank L. (Skip) Bowman (Retired; Former Director of Nuclear
Energy Institute)

• Current status of nuclear power and its prospects and challenges for the future:
  • There are often three “yes-buts” from the public with nuclear power:
    • Safety and security (indirectly related to proliferation)
    • Financing new reactors
    • Used-fuel management or waste
• Nuclear power comprises ~20% of US electricity consumption:
  • ~100 commercial reactors and ~100 naval reactors
• To put this in perspective, electric power plants in the US are run using the following:
  • ~50% coal
  • ~20% nuclear
  • ~20% gas
  • 7% hydro/renewable
  • 3% oil
• Nuclear plants produce 73% of all carbon-free electricity generation in the US
• A small percentage of plants are powered using imported energy
• Current US nuclear power reactors are both pressurized water and boiling water reactors
• The benefits of nuclear energy:
  • The price of electricity is cheap and stable with respect to market volatility, unlike non-renewable energies
  • No emissions in the production of nuclear energy; nuclear energy avoids the CO2 emissions of an equal amount of output of 130 million cars
  • Nuclear plants are safe; scram incidents are rare3
  • Nuclear plant capacity factor has greatly increased in recent years (90% from 2000-2006)
  • Market share has grown 25% without increasing the number of plants through greater efficiency and updates at existing reactors
• Concerns regarding nuclear energy:
  • Large amount of water needed to cool the reactor, although most of it is returned to the source
  • The issue of nuclear waste:
    • Technical solutions now exist but so do political hurdles
    • The federal government was to begin managing fuel rods from commercial reactors in 1998 but has not yet done so

File Attachment: 

091806 bullet points.pdf