In another sign of a nuclear revival, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on Tuesday announced a deal with The Shaw Group and Westinghouse for the nation’s first factory to build nuclear power plant components.
Louisiana tossed in tax breaks and other incentives worth $248 million over the next decade to lure the project to the Port of Lake Charles. The assembly plant will be a joint venture between engineering and construction firm Shaw (SGR) and Westinghouse, the nuclear plant builder now owned by Toshiba. The two companies are constructing four nuclear power stations in China and say they’re looking at 14 power plants in the United States. There hasn’t been a new nuke plant licensed in the U.S. in more than three decades.
“The agreement to fabricate modules for the AP1000 nuclear power plant in Louisiana again proves that the nuclear renaissance is now a reality,” said Westinghouse executive Dan Lipman in statement.
Of the many hurdles to reviving the U.S. nuclear industry – the unresolved waste disposal issue, huge capital costs, environmental opposition – the withering away of the infrastructure to produce power plant components has been one that has received relatively little attention.
Green Wombat 
Is it 3 decades? or Two???? I could have sworn some were built in the 80’s.
It looks like the last plant started construction in March of 1977 – so definitely 3 decades.
Here’s a link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_the_last_nuclear_power_plant_built_in_the_US
Three Mile Island occurred March 28, 1979. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not reviewed an application to build a new nuclear power plant in the United States since, or until recently.
The reactionary, illiterate, unaware states cannot help but go to the lowest solution first, such as nuclear. That is why they are also “first” in diabetes, low education, low mortality rate, low health, low income, low salary, low skills, etc. etc. In sum, low consciousness. (And this foolishness causes us to all pay the price, because they keep producing the presidents who run this country, working at odds with the environmental good of the nation and the world.
I think this is great news! We’re headed for a melt down of our society if we don’t find energy solutions immediately. We need to build 100s of nuclear power plants and start transitioning to electric cars before oil is $10 a gallon. Electric cars aren’t the answer to everything, however, as everything manufactured today is done with oil components and shipped by truck. I have educated myself about these new plants being built by Westinghouse and they have passive safety features that prevent major problems. The ignorant people posting ugly comments about southern states need to get off their high horse and start reading about peak oil!!!
Nice comment Roy. Just shows how educated you are.
Hey Roy.. Way to make a ridiculous comment based largely on your emotion. If, in fact, the united states moves away from using coal and natural gas (I think we shouldn’t use such a high percentage).. We need a source of energy that isn’t as intermittant as wind and solar.. Nuclear doesn’t create greenhouse gases and it is much safer than what you saw in the movie The China Syndrome. Perhaps you should stop reading Barack Obama articles on CNN and actually do some original reasearch before you make such ignorant statements.
We need cars that operate at 500 miles per gallon, or no gallons actually, eliminating oil and gas. We can do the same for all aspects of society from airplanes to ships to rail to the running of our houses and factories. Oil and gas are for the reactionary brain dead, i.e. the current leaders of the country, and the areas with vested interest in old technologies.
Nuke power in the US will never get above 5%. Also, where to store the waste? The key step is to move moving vehicles off oil and gas. Then do the same for all other aspects of society. Innovation of clean power will be the future. Nuke, oil, coal are entrenched interests.
Ultimately, all moving vehicles and all edifices on earth can be powered by electricity that does not use fossil fuels as their source of power. Cars can plug into the grid, and homes, factories, offices, et all also plug into the grid that are created by power plants not fueled by oil, gas, coal, or nuclear. This is the 20 year vision. Even fuel driven power plants can be weaned off that fuel.
It’s coming-
The united states currently consumes 8.4% of its electricity from nuclear power. (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec1_3.pdf)
It was much higher, but most of the new generation capacity added in the last 25 years has been coal and natural gas. Poor policy decisions by the worst president in the history of the united states (Jimmy Carter) has led to the high levels of fine partical pollution and poor air quality caused by over usage of coal power.
The greatest visionary president of the last 30 years, Jimmy Carter, warned the world about the issue of energy conservation and energy shortages, asking the world to make a major change. They didn’t listen. Al Gore revisited it in his book Earth in the Balance in the late 80s. Now the whole world is picking up on his leas. Thank you Al, but thank you Jimmy for seeing beyond into the future.
Are we talking about the same Jimmy Carter that had a similar approval rating to GW when he left office? The one that left us with 11% inflation, 19% discount rate, and 10% unemployment? The same Jimmy Carter that pissed off Iran? I’m not sure if ‘visionary’ and ‘Jimmy Carter’ can coherantly be put together in the same sentence. That would be like saying ‘great communicator’ and ‘George Bush’.
Hey, RP, if not oil, gas, coal or nuclear then what? Oh yea, solar ! Cover the globe with panels until we are all living in the shade.
“It’s coming” wrote that nuclear will never get about 5% in the US.
Interesting, as is currently responsible for 20% of the electricity generated in the United States. But then again, doing research and looking into the facts of the matter have never been one of the stronger skill sets of the anti-nuclear crowd.
Just see how the French do it. They are almost 100% nuclear an have been for a long time
Oh, wait, that can’t be good right, they are socialist , anti gun and not too religious, Nah, lets keep on burning coal and drive huge pick-up trucks.
US gets about a fifth of electricity from nuclear fission. However the non-electric energy consumption is larger than the electric energy consumption, and therefore the percentage nuclear in total energy use is much lower.
And no, the United States gets more energy from nuclear fission than France does.
There’s your problem. Stop using so much energy. I lived in the US a long time, and I think it has to do with the general culture in the US. A culture of not willing to make sacrifices and instead want everything at the same time. From the highest level politicians to the lowest rednecks, this silly cultural aspect is everywhere.
I am not against nuclear power. I’m against using nuclear power as an excuse to continue business as usual and not make changes in behaviour. That is not sustainable, with or without nuclear.
Yes! I’m looking forward to the day that Bobby Jindal runs for president.
look, as much of a novelty as clean energy is, it simply isn’t enough to power the industrial capacity that the US is. I’m all for conservation, but it doesn’t have to mean we turn back to the stone age either. Nuclear energy is the only zero-carbon emission energy source capable of powering our cities. and until we figure out how to harness fusion energy, fission is our only answer
If it means anything, being from massachusetts, I know that eastern new england gets it’s power from nuclear sources.