First-of-a-kind nuclear project is terminated in a blow to Biden's clean energy agenda
A project to build a first-of-a-kind small modular nuclear reactor power plant was terminated Wednesday
WASHINGTON — A project to build a first-of-a-kind small modular nuclear reactor power plant was terminated Wednesday, another blow to the Biden administration's clean energy agenda following cancellations last week of two major offshore wind projects.
Oregon-based NuScale Power has the only small modular nuclear reactor design certified for use in the United States. For its first project, the company was working with a group of Utah utilities to demonstrate a six-reactor plant at the Idaho National Laboratory, generating enough electricity to power more than 300,000 homes.
The project was to come online starting in 2029 and was supposed to replace electricity from coal plants that are closing. When combined with wind and solar, the advanced nuclear technology was intended to help municipalities and public power utilities in several western states eliminate planet-warming greenhouse gas emission from the power sector.
Instead, NuScale and the Utah utilities announced Wednesday they're terminating the project after a decade of working on it. The cancellation comes as two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey were canceled amid supply chain problems, high interest rates and a failure to obtain the desired tax credits.
The announcement by Danish energy giant Orsted was the latest in a series of setbacks for the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry and a blow to President Joe Biden's goal to have 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes.
A spokeswoman for the Energy Department called the cancellation «unfortunate news,'' but said first-of-a-kind deployments are often difficult.
Read more on abcnews.go.com
