Did you catch "The Meltdown: Three Mile Island" on Netflix? TMI remains a danger and TMIA is working hard to ensure the safety of our communities and the surrounding areas. Learn more on this site and support our efforts. Join TMIA. To contact the TMIA office, call 717-233-7897.
Renewables Leader NextEra Expanding Gas, Nuclear for AI Boom
Josh Saul 3 min read
In This Article:
(Bloomberg) -- NextEra Energy Inc., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of wind and solar power, is moving to expand its natural gas and nuclear generation in a bid to meet the surging demand for electricity sparked by artificial intelligence.
The company has partnered with gas turbine manufacturer GE Vernova Inc. to build power generation for data centers and factories, Chief Executive Officer John Ketchum said on an earnings call Friday. NextEra has also taken the first step to restarting its shuttered Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa.
US power consumption is rising, driven by data centers and AI, along with manufacturing and the increasing electrification of the economy. That’s spurred demand for new gas plants and reawakened interest in nuclear energy. The electricity boom has sparked new ideas and deals that would once have been unthinkable.
“We’re already having a lot of success with renewables, but let’s capitalize on the need for capacity and gas generation,” Ketchum said in an interview. By partnering with GE Vernova, “we can find multi-gigawatt solutions for these customers, not just gas but combined with renewable solutions,” he said.
Ketchum also said that strategy will be helped by the Trump administration’s strong support for gas power.
NextEra shares gained as much as 5.8% in New York. The company also owns Florida Power & Light, one of the largest US utilities.
“It can’t be underestimated how much this industry has changed in a very short amount of time, really the last 15 months to 18 months,” Rebecca Kujawa, head of subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources, said on the call. “We’ve seen a lot of increase in demand for natural gas.”
GE Vernova has said data centers favor gas over intermittent renewable sources like wind because the facilities require power around the clock. Scott Strazik, GE Vernova’s CEO, said this week that orders for gas turbines more than doubled to 20 gigawatts last year and he expects 2025 to be even stronger.
NextEra has asked US regulators for a licensing change for the Duane Arnold nuclear plant, a first step toward potentially restarting the Iowa facility.
NextEra aims to get the reactor up and running again as early as the end of 2028, it said Friday in an earnings release. “This is much faster than we and investors we speak to expect,” Jefferies LLC analysts led by Julien Dumoulin-Smith said in a note.
The request was filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday, according to a company representative. NextEra had previously said it was interested in reviving the plant.
NextEra is not the only company pursuing efforts to revive reactors. South Carolina utility Santee Cooper said Wednesday it’s seeking bids to restart construction of two reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. And in September, NextEra rival Constellation Energy Corp. announced plans to restart a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania to supply Microsoft Corp.
The 600-megawatt Duane Arnold plant closed in 2020 after its biggest customer decided to exit its power-purchase agreement. The facility was also damaged in a windstorm that same year, prompting the company to close the plant two months earlier than planned.
NextEra has said Duane Arnold, which went into service in 1974, uses less-complex technology that may make it easier to revive than newer nuclear plants. But Jefferies & Co. analyst Julian Dumoulin-Smith has said bringing the facility back into service would be costly and there’s no guarantee the economics would be justified.
(Updates with comment from CEO in fourth paragraph, comment from analyst in 10th paragraph.)
President Trump’s freeze on Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act spending has, if nothing else, caused some confusion about the future of the historic Palisades nuclear plant restart effort and its ability to remain on the schedule outlined by its owner, Holtec International.
The cornerstone of the unprecedented project is a $1.52 billion loan agreement the U.S. Department of Energy finalized in September with Holtec.
The DOE money for that loan is coming from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, distributions from which Trump has frozen through an executive order. He also has ordered unspent money to be returned.
The IRA has been called America’s largest single investment in fighting climate change. Trump opposes it because, as a matter of policy, he doesn’t want to spend money on climate change projects.
“I definitely think it's causing confusion, without knowing exactly how the deal is structured,” said Edwin Lyman, director of Nuclear Power Safety for the Cambridge, Mass.-based Union of Concerned Scientists. “I think it depends on the project. At the minimum, it's confusing.”
For now, oil and natural gas drilling “will be king” under Trump, Mr. Lyman said.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry’s chief lobbyist group on Capitol Hill, has in recent years rebranded the nuclear industry as a leading strategy for reducing climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions.
“The nuclear industry has been very successful in converting Democrats,” Mr. Lyman said. “That could backfire.”
But Nick Culp, Holtec Palisades senior manager of government affairs and communications, told The Blade he’s confident the project will remain on schedule and the DOE loan will be unharmed because of Trump’s general support of nuclear power as an energy source.
“We're very confident, based on the very strong support we're hearing from the President and his nominees,” Mr. Culp said. “We feel very confident the support will be there and there will be a place in which Palisades fits with America's energy agenda.”
Holtec, which has never operated a nuclear plant, is trying to make Palisades the first nuclear plant in American history to go back online after it has been mothballed and put into its decommissioning phase.
The plant ceased operations in May of 2022 when its previous owner, Entergy, said it was doing so permanently for economic reasons.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been a strong supporter of the potential restart, calling the project an important part of her MI Healthy Climate Plan, which sets deadlines for the state to reduce its carbon emissions.
“We are reviewing. Thank you,” was the only statement received by The Blade from Ms. Whitmer’s office when asked for a comment about Trump’s executive order.
An online request for comment was submitted to White House communications, which acknowledged receipt but gave no immediate response.
“It’s certainly going to be disruptive,” Alan Blind, a retired nuclear power executive who once spent nearly seven years as the Palisades engineering director, said of Trump’s executive order.
While it’s possible the contract in place with the DOE will hold, even if all $1.52 billion hasn’t been distributed yet, that wouldn’t necessarily be the case if Holtec is found to be in violation of it.
He said there are multiple issues, one of the largest being the condition of the Palisades steam generator tubes.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission verified at a recent meeting that steam generator tubes went two years before they were laid up in a wet chemical process that was supposed to be done immediately after shutdown if the goal was to preserve them for additional usage. That protocol is an industry standard supported by California-based EPRI, a consulting group the nuclear industry often relies upon.
Mr. Culp said the extent of damage of steam generator tubes was simply part of the inspection process. He did not respond when asked why it took so long to store them in the wet chemical process.
Kevin Kamps, an activist with Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear who grew up near the plant, said that safety assurances are “very dubious, as [the] NRC is completely captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate.”
The NRC has said multiple times, including recently, that it will not authorize restart unless it is convinced it is safe to do so.
The government regulator also reminded Holtec and its contractors during a public meeting at the NRCs national headquarters in Rockville, Md., last week that it is not beholden to the company’s timetable.
Mr. Culp told The Blade that Holtec is still eyeing restart for the fourth quarter of this year, despite issues raised by Trump’s executive order.
First Published January 23, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Tom Henry
Follow to receive notifications any time Tom Henry publishes a new story
NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to Hold Oral Argument on Palisades Restart License Amendment Requests
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will conduct an oral argument Feb. 12 on adjudicatory hearing petitions concerning Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC’s, and Holtec Palisades, LLC’s, license amendment requests and an exemption request related to a potential restart of the Palisades Nuclear Plant. Palisades is located in South Haven, Michigan.
The oral argument will begin at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. It will allow the board to ask questions regarding challenges from two petitioning groups, a group of nine individuals (Joint Petitioners) and a group of five organizations (Petitioning Organizations). The three administrative judges on the board will hear argument from representatives for the petitioning groups, Holtec, and the NRC staff.
The proceeding will be in the ASLB’s Hearing Room at NRC headquarters. It will be open for observation in person and via a listen-only telephone line. Those who want to attend in person should use the NRC’s main entrance at 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, and should arrive by 7:30 a.m. Eastern time to allow time for security screening and escort to the hearing room before the oral argument begins. Visitors must provide a valid government-issued photo ID during the screening process. Signs, banners, displays or other demonstration materials are prohibited in the hearing room.
The public may listen to the oral argument by dialing 301-576-2978 and entering passcode 101 394 753#. For additional information please contact Twana Ellis at Twana.Ellis@nrc.gov or 301-415-6094.
The board is composed of three administrative judges from the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. Boards conduct adjudicatory hearings on NRC licensing and enforcement actions, and they are independent of the NRC staff. A board’s rulings may be appealed to the Commission, the five-member body that sets NRC policy.
Information on the Palisades restart review is available on the NRC website (click on “Potential Restart”).
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a $9,000 civil penalty against Paramount Builders, Inc. of Pago Pago, American Samoa, for a violation of NRC requirements associated with its use of equipment containing radioactive materials.
The violation involved the company’s possession and use of two portable nuclear gauges, although only one was authorized in its NRC license. The devices are used to measure the physical properties of materials, such as soil at construction sites. Companies are required to properly handle and possess radioactive materials in the quantity authorized by their NRC license to protect public health and the environment.
The proposed fine stems from an unannounced inspection conducted in February 2024 at the facility, followed by an office review. During the inspection, 10 other violations were identified but were not assessed a civil penalty. All identified violations are documented in the September 2024 inspection report.
The NRC issued its decision after reviewing the circumstances surrounding the proposed violation and corrective actions taken by the company.
Paramount Builders has 30 days to pay the fine, dispute it, or request involvement from a neutral third-party mediator to resolve the issue.
Bill Gates-backed nuclear energy firm Terrapower announced that it has received approval from the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council (ISC) on its permit for the first Natrium plant, Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1.
The approval will allow for the construction of non-nuclear facilities – including the energy island portion that houses the molten-salt energy storage tanks and turbines – of the Natrium plant.
The Natrium technology features an advanced nuclear design with a 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with a gigawatt-scale molten salt-based energy storage system.
Matthew J. Marzano, nominated as an NRC Commissioner by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, was ceremonially sworn in today by Chair Christopher T. Hanson. His term expires June 30, 2028.
“The next few years are some of the most pivotal in the agency’s history,” said Marzano. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to join my fellow Commissioners at this moment to work together to help shape the future of the NRC.”
The NRC has five Commissioners, one of whom is designated by the President as Chair. The Commission was established to be a collegial body that formulates policies, develops regulations, issues orders to licensees and adjudicates legal matters. The Commissioners serve five-year terms, with one term expiring every year on June 30. No more than three Commissioners may be of the same political party.
“I welcome Matthew Marzano to the NRC Commission as we prepare for the new year and the exciting events and issues before us,” said Hanson. “The Commission functions at its best when we are at our full strength of five.”
Marzano began his career as a civilian instructor for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program at the U.S. Department of Energy. In that capacity, he oversaw the training of U.S. Navy personnel preparing for assignment as nuclear plant operators on submarines and aircraft carriers. Marzano then transitioned to the commercial nuclear power industry at the V.C. Summer new nuclear construction project in South Carolina, where he supported construction activities while pursuing a Senior Reactor Operator license. He earned his Senior Reactor Operator license at Braidwood Nuclear Power Station, in Illinois, where he led installation testing of a modernized control system to improve plant performance and safety.
Most recently, Marzano served as a “detailee” from the Idaho National Laboratory to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, where he advised the committee on policy matters relating to clean air, climate, and energy, including the bipartisan ADVANCE Act. Prior to this role, Marzano was selected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Congressional Fellow, representing the American Nuclear Society and supporting the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Marzano holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida, where his research focused on the modeling of nuclear energy systems.
Amazon’s push for small modular nuclear reactors is just the latest development in decadeslong fight over nuclear energy
Caution signs warn of radioactive materials at the Tank-Side Cesium Removal System process enclosure outside AP Tank Farm on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Sept. 24, 2024. Amazon announced in October that it plans to build nuclear reactors in southeast Washington that would power its data centers in Umatilla and Morrow counties, but many tribes and environmentalists are against it.
Courtesy Annie Warren/NWPB / OPB
Chuck Johnson was 25 years old when he helped bring Oregon’s nuclear energy industry to a sudden halt.
Fresh out of college, Johnson helped lead signature gathering and field organizing to pass Ballot Measure 7, which banned all new nuclear power plants in the state until the U.S. had a federally licensed permanent disposal facility. When Oregon’s only nuclear energy facility was closed in 1992, the measure effectively ensured that nothing would take its place unless major changes happened.
For decades those changes seemed unlikely, but a new push by the power-hungry tech industry has reignited interest in nuclear energy in the region.
Amazon announced in October that it is partnering with Energy Northwest to develop and build nuclear reactors in southeast Washington that would power its data centers in Umatilla and Morrow counties. Amazon would work with its partners to develop and roll out a novel technology – small modular nuclear reactors – without brushing up against the limits of Measure 7 because the reactors would be north of the Columbia River.
For Amazon, SMRs would allow the tech and e-commerce giant to harness the immense, low-carbon power potential of nuclear energy while staying true to its climate goals, and avoiding the safety and environmental concerns that have plagued traditional reactors. More than 40 years after passing Measure 7, Johnson isn’t convinced.
“If you can’t get rid of the waste produced by these plants, it’s irresponsible for us to – for the sake of some electricity right now – leave this legacy to future generations,” he said.
Johnson is a part of a group of environmentalists, academics and American Indian tribes who are gathering force against a nuclear energy revival in the Northwest.
Nuclear energy opponents argue that SMRs are simply a new coat of paint on the industry’s old problems. Like traditional reactors, they say that SMRs aren’t economically feasible and risk exposing people to nuclear radiation in a region still recovering from its World War II legacy.
The X-energy command room in Rockville, Md. Amazon plans to use X-energy's nuclear reactor design to power its Eastern Oregon data centers.
Photo courtesy of X-energy / Photo courtesy of X-energy
‘It’s for their profit’
M.V. Ramana’s argument against SMRs is economic as much as it is scientific.
A professor in the School of Public Affairs and Global Policy at the University of British Columbia, Ramana said the global share of electricity generated from nuclear reactors has been shrinking for decades, mainly due to the cost of building them.
Ramana pointed to the U.S.’s newest nuclear reactor project as an example. A nuclear reactor expansion at Plant Vogtle in Georgia went billions of dollars over budget before its first reactor went online in 2023.
Proponents say SMRs could solve the cost problem. At about one-tenth the size of a traditional reactor, SMR parts could be manufactured offsite, a process expected to save considerable money. While SMRs might sacrifice total capacity, their output is anticipated to far exceed other forms of low-carbon energy like solar and wind.
Ramana is skeptical of this argument, too. He said traditional reactors rely on an economy of scale: Their large size carries a great expense but it also means more energy to generate and sell. While an SMR might be one-tenth the size of a traditional reactor, Ramana said not all the costs of running and operating it are going to shrink by the same margin. SMR developers have also yet to realize decreased construction costs, Ramana said. He referenced NuScale, a Portland company whose SMR project in Idaho ballooned its cost 75% to $9.3 billion before it was canceled.
Amazon and other tech companies are backing nuclear as they promote technologies reliant on artificial intelligence because the hardware used to compute that data has extensive energy needs. The International Energy Agency projects data center energy consumption to double from 2022 to 2026. But optimistic timelines for the completion of the Amazon SMRs in Washington estimates they wouldn’t be built for at least seven years. Ramana said that’s enough time for the data demand bubble to burst.
“They need the power right now, because right now is when the market is hot,” he said. “There is no guarantee that in 10 years the market is going to be hot and they will need all this power.”
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said it won’t abandon its other green energy efforts as it pursues nuclear projects.
“We will continue to invest in new sources of solar, wind, and energy storage, alongside nuclear facilities … Expanding our energy investment strategy to include other forms of carbon-free energy, including nuclear, is the most viable option to bring new sources of carbon-free energy online quickly enough to help bridge this gap,” the company said in a written statement.
If Amazon and other tech companies were truly interested in protecting the world from climate change, Ramana said, they would take steps to reduce their data businesses rather than growing its energy usage.
“It’s for their profit,” he said. “It is not for the environmental good that they are doing it.”
The Hanford Site pictured in 2021. Amazon announced in October that it plans to build nuclear reactors in southeast Washington that would power its data centers in Umatilla and Morrow counties, but many tribes and environmentalists are against it.
ANNA KING/NW NEWS NETWORK
Hanford’s legacy
Columbia Riverkeeper staff attorney Simone Anter describes Hanford Reach as an idyllic spot, the last undammed, free-flowing part of the Columbia River and an important spawning grounds for Chinook salmon.
It’s also near the most nuclear waste-polluted area in the Western Hemisphere.
During World War II and the Cold War, the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington was the top producer of weapons-grade plutonium in the U.S. While Hanford stopped producing plutonium in the 1980s, the site left behind hundreds of billions of gallons of nuclear waste in underground storage tanks that leached into the soil.
Anter said Columbia Riverkeeper was formed when two groups worried about nuclear pollution in the Columbia merged.
“A lot of our work centers around this idea that Hanford is not a nuclear waste dumping ground, it is a place that has a future that people want to use and will use,” she said.
Building new nuclear reactors would be a literal barrier to clean-up efforts as new buildings could cover contaminated areas, Anter said. Columbia Riverkeeper is also concerned that SMRs could mean further nuclear pollution in the event of a meltdown.
SMR backers say that the size and technology of these reactors significantly reduces the risk of a meltdown. But even if the reactors avoid meltdowns, Ramana said they would still generate waste that will take hundreds or even thousands of years to decay.
The Nixyaawii Governance Center in Mission, Ore., on April 30, 2024, located in Umatilla County. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation has ceded land at Hanford and has opposed SMRs for years.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
The tribes respond
Indigenous tribes often bear the brunt of the nuclear energy industry’s follies.
In the Pacific Northwest, the Yakama Nation has religious sites at Hanford and is directly involved in clean-up efforts. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation also has ceded land at Hanford and has opposed SMRs for years. They reiterated their opposition in a December statement, writing that they were against any “expansion of nuclear energy” unless developers sought permission through the CTUIR government.
Amazon has spent several years building a relationship with the CTUIR, including the establishment of an educational lab on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in 2022. But the tribes are concerned about how SMRs would affect water quality, fish and game habitat and plant life, all integral parts of the tribes’ First Foods.
Early signs also point to nuclear energy becoming a hot topic at the upcoming legislative session in Salem. State Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, has already said she will sponsor a bill that would authorize an SMR pilot program in Umatilla County. A legislative committee also received a presentation on SMRs from nuclear energy officials in December.
It’s a fight Johnson, who helped curtail the nuclear energy industry by leading the effort to pass Measure 7 in 1980, hasn’t let go.
In the years that followed the measure’s passage, he worked as a fundraiser for Portland State University and Western Oregon University, but Johnson re-engaged with the nuclear issue following the 2011 nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan.
He steered his career track back toward nuclear opposition, becoming a program manager for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, first moving to Boston and then Switzerland to lead the organization’s Geneva office.
Johnson intends to retire later this year and return to Oregon, where he plans to remain active in opposing nuclear energy. He sees the sudden push for SMRs as an act of hubris from the country’s “tech bros,” an unearned confidence that they could unlock the potential of nuclear energy where previous generations have failed. Given the long, uncertain timeline for SMRs, Johnson thinks it’s just a ploy for tech companies to consume however much energy they want, whether it’s low carbon or not.
“I think it’s cynical,” he said. “They’re basically saying, ‘We got a promise to be carbon free, and fortunately for us, it’s something that’s going to take a while to do.’”
