But otherwise, the US nuclear power portfolio is old, and much of it is in need of improvement.įor an idea of the money and corruption that can revolve around energy production, look at the sentencing last week of Ohio’s former House Speaker Larry Householder to 20 years in prison for his involvement in a bribery scheme meant to get the utility company FirstEnergy Corp. In addition to the Georgia reactor coming online, a new reactor began operating in Tennessee in 2016. Most large US nuclear reactors are old – averaging 40 years or more. It enriches and sells uranium through its state-controlled nuclear energy company, Rosatom, which builds and operates plants around the world, according to a March report from CNN’s Clare Sebastian that explains why the West has largely left Russia’s nuclear power industry alone.īut it is China that is moving the quickest toward nuclear power production, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.Īs of 2022, about 18% of US electricity is generated by nuclear power, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Russia, while it has been ostracized from the world economy in almost every way since its invasion of Ukraine, remains a major player in nuclear power. Most of its electricity is generated by nuclear power. Next door, France is the worldwide nuclear leader. The last nuclear reactor there was taken offline earlier this year, a decision some might have regretted after Germany’s access to Russian natural gas was threatened by the war in Ukraine.

Germany made the decision to decommission all of its nuclear plants after disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima. The question of nuclear energy splits governments The opening of a new nuclear plant in Georgia, for example, will bring carbon emission-free energy at exactly the time worldwide temperature records drive home the reality of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Those developments, which might give anyone pause about the future of nuclear power, are counteracted by other headlines.

News that Japan will soon release radioactive water into the ocean, a reminder of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

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