The United States’ increasing energy demand could be met through new reactors depending on factors from costs to public acceptance of nuclear power, based on an ICF International report.
The March 27 report is available on the ICF website. ICF is a consulting and technology company based in Reston, Va.
With the growth of data centers, artificial intelligence and other manufacturing, the demand for electricity in the United States is projected to double or triple its use by 2028. President Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders pushing for more domestic energy production.
In the report, ICF says that the U.S. nuclear industry has struggled to reduce its costs partly due to its large number of nuclear plant designs used across the nation. Each plant design requires its own construction, maintenance and workforce. Standardization is needed, according to ICF.
“[T]he nuclear industry needs to pick a design and stick to it,” ICF said in the report.
The timing of the next nuclear plant was viewed as a factor. As stated in the report, the Vogtle plant, Georgia Power’s four-unit plant based in Waynesboro, Ga, could have been the blueprint for large nuclear plants but there are no pending orders for that particular plant design.
As Unit 1 and Unit 2 were created in the late 1980s, many of the workers of Vogtle have moved on or retired, leaving it difficult for the industry to build upon the knowledge of the Vogtle plant, the report says.
