WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, North Carolina’s Senate approved a bill that would allow Duke Energy to spend potentially billions on more unneeded nuclear power plants, including hundreds of millions on technology that won’t exist for years, if it ever does.
Senate Bill 678 revises the state’s definition of “renewable energy” to “clean energy” and includes nuclear energy that previously did not qualify as renewable power. State Sen. Paul Newton (R), a former top Duke Energy executive, is leading the push for the legislative change.
Newton’s bill would also eliminate a state law requiring that any new nuclear power plant to be built in North Carolina can only occur if renewables, energy efficiency and other much cheaper and cleaner measures could not provide the same electricity. Duke Energy would be the biggest benefactor of this change, as it prioritizes nuclear and dirty fossil fuels over solar and wind.
“There is absolutely no reason for North Carolina and Duke to sink another dime into more nuclear power, now that renewables like solar, wind and battery storage are affordable and readily available options for utilities,” said Environmental Working Group President and Co-founder Ken Cook.
“This legislation would take North Carolina backwards, just as the clean – and safe – energy revolution is taking hold in states across the country,” said Cook.
S.B. 678 now heads to the North Carolina House for consideration.
If enacted, the multi-billion-dollar nuclear boondoggle would be the latest setback for clean energy efforts in North Carolina. State utility regulators recently gutted incentives for homeowners and businesses to generate their own power using rooftop solar and batteries.
Nuclear technology ‘money pit’
“If this bill becomes law, North Carolina ratepayers will be on the hook to cover hundreds of millions or even billions in development costs, even if some of the technologies Duke Energy is counting on with its pie-in-the-sky plans never become reality,” said Cook.
The bill would throw good money after bad by promoting investment in nuclear technology that doesn’t exist and might never make it off the drawing board.
Last year, Duke submitted a plan required under state law to show how the monopoly utility will reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The company proposed to add small modular reactors, or SMRs, to its fleet of power plants in the state. It’s doomed to failure because SMR technology isn’t currently viable and won’t exist for at least a decade.
Under the plan, Duke will spend $145 billion over the next 10 years to achieve the 2050 emissions goal. The utility intends to spend almost 30 percent, or roughly $43.5 billion, on uncertain nuclear technology like SMRs and more natural gas plants.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission ultimately approved the plan over the objections of EWG, the climate nonprofit NC WARN and other environmental organizations.
The struggle with SMRs
EWG’s energy expert witness in the North Carolina carbon plan proceeding, Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., said Duke underestimated the time and cost involved in building SMRs, adding that none of the proposed technologies are near the pilot project stage of development.
A 2021 analysis commissioned by EWG and written by Makhijani and his colleague M.V. Ramana, Ph.D., documents the folly of SMRs in great detail. The study backs EWG’s long-running claims that SMRs are a non-viable waste of money that can’t help fight the climate crisis.
There are no SMRs operating in the U.S. The only such technology that has been given preliminary design approval by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to proceed with its plans for development is being advanced by Oregon-based NuScale.
NuScale is collaborating with Utah Associated Municipal Power System to build an SMR at a Department of Energy site in Idaho. In 2015, the company said the entire capital cost would be $3 billion, which has now ballooned to $6.1 billion, even before construction begins. The project has already been delayed about 14 years, with $3 billion in cost overruns.
“This technology, like the old nuclear plants, is a proven money pit that will almost certainly take years to build and cost several times more than originally promised,” said Cook. “A monopoly utility like Duke may prefer that, but it will be a financial disaster for ratepayers.”
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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
