1 Prospects for Nuclear Power

application for a proposed nuclear power reactor to be built in Southern Texas. The application was significant because it marked the first new license application in almost three decades. During the following year the NRC went on to receive 16 license applications for a total of 24 proposed reactors. The time was right, so it seemed, for a nuclear power renaissance in the United States. Natural gas prices were at their highest level ever in real terms. The 2005 Energy Policy Act provided loan guarantees, production tax credits, and other subsidies for new nuclear plants. And many believed that the United States was close to enacting legislation that would limit emissions of carbon dioxide. Then everything changed. Natural gas prices fell sharply in 2009. Legislation to limit carbon emissions stalled in Congress. The global recession slowed the growth of electricity demand. And, in March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in northern Japan, causing partial meltdowns at the plant’s three active reactors and large-scale releases of radioactive steam. Since 2009 only a single additional license application has been filed with the NRC. The project proposed for Southern Texas has been cancelled and few of the applications pending with the NRC are moving forward. Fukushima ha