America aims for nuclear-power renaissance

livemint.com:

sprawl across landscapes and attract legal challenges from groups with other ideas on how the land should be used. The need to limit greenhouse-gas emissions has spurred liberals, historically wary of nuclear’s toxic-waste problem, to rethink their stance. In America 46% of Democrats favour using nuclear energy for electricity, the highest proportion in a decade.

Republicans have long approved of it. But the biggest reason for celebration is the billions of dollars the Biden administration is pumping in through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which made nuclear power eligible for the same tax credits as renewables like wind and solar; and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which created a $6bn fund to help keep existing plants running. The administration is even offering developers a bonus tax break if they build reactors in fossil-fuel areas, such as a coal-mining town, to funnel workers into green jobs.

Boosters predict an atomic renaissance after decades in the dark ages. Nuclear provides about 19% of America’s electricity generation, but at least 13 reactors have been shut down since 2013 alone. California had planned to shutter its last remaining nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, which provides 9% of the state’s power.

It is now using a $1.1bn grant from the infrastructure law to try to extend the plant’s life. West Virginia repealed a ban on new reactors. Bill Gates, who founded TerraPower, a nuclear startup, has expressed interest in building a plant there.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), a lobby group, counts 12 states that passed laws in 2022 to help keep plants running, and attract new ones. The Department of Energy (DoE) is praying that the party turns into a fully fledged rager. A recent