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Watts Bar Unit 2 Is The First New US Nuclear Reactor In Decades (washingtonpost.com)
tomhath writes from a report via The Washington Post: The Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first nuclear reactor to come online since 1996, when the Watts Bar Unit 1 started operations. The new reactor is designed to add 1,150 megawatts of electricity generating capacity to southeastern Tennessee. By summer's end, authorities expect the new reactor at this complex along the Chickamauga Reservoir, a dammed section of the Tennessee River extending northward from Chattanooga, to steadily generate enough electricity to power 650,000 homes. But while nuclear reactors account for the lion's share of the carbon-free electricity generated in the United States, the industry faces this new set of circumstances in a state of near-crisis. A combination of very cheap natural gas and deregulated energy markets in some states has led to a growing number of plant closures in recent years. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says that renewable energy, including solar, wind and hydroelectric will overtake natural gas as an energy source by 2027.
There are. Vogtle 3 & 4 are going to use the AP1000 design from Westinghouse which is a Generation III reactor. It stores emergency coolant water in a tank over the reactor so you do not need to use pumps to cool the reactor in an emergency.
Gotta disagree with you, if Nuclear power was regulated with the same lax attitude as Coal, then we would be facing a lot of issues with radiation.
Just look at Fukushima where a tendency to rely on boards of people for decisions allowed them to ignore engineers who had clearly explained the risks of the low sea walls.
If we let the same ass-hats, that regularly kill their own people by disabling methane detection systems and intentionally undercutting mine supports, self-regulate nukes... then I would have a hard time supporting that power source
The US NRC has proven itself to be demanding of the industry and capable of ensuring that we do not face frequent, or even repeated hazards to public health.
It is sad that our newest reactor is a 50+ year old PWR design. Stop the insanity and build small breeder reactors.