NuScale: Biden’s Clean Energy Agenda Dented as First Small-Scale Nuclear Project Faces Termination

The Biden administration’s clean energy agenda suffered further blows on Wednesday with the cancellation of two significant offshore wind projects last week.

The project to construct a unique small modular nuclear reactor power plant was canceled.

Supporters claimed that the compact design, measuring only 9 feet across and 65 feet high, had the potential to revive the US nuclear industry, which has only produced two fully functional reactors this century. 

It was intended to realize a dream: smaller, modular designs that enable atom splitting to boil water and drive steam turbines at a significantly lower cost. 

However, the Voygr model reactor, created by NuScale, a startup, had to be constructed first. It was planned to start building a six-reactor, 462-megawatt plant by 2026 and start producing electricity by the end of the decade.

Beginning in 2029, the project was intended to take the place of the electricity produced by closing coal-fired power plants.

In several western states, municipalities and public power utilities hoped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by utilizing advanced nuclear technology in conjunction with solar and wind power.

On the other hand, following ten years of development, NuScale and the Utah utilities declared on Wednesday that they are ending the project. 

Due to issues with the supply chain, exorbitant interest rates, and an inability to secure the intended tax credits, two sizable offshore wind projects in New Jersey were canceled.

NuScale Project Will Enough Subscriptions

According to NuScale as well as the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, there is little chance that the project will receive enough local power provider subscriptions to proceed. 

Fifty members make up the power system, primarily public power utilities and municipalities in Utah and other Western states.

The Utah group claimed that the majority of potential subscribers were unwilling to assume the risks involved in creating a novel nuclear project.

The company reported that costs had risen by more than 50% to $89 per megawatt hour in the previous two years.

Small reactors are viewed as a cheaper alternative to larger, more traditional nuclear power plants that require decades to complete and cost billions of dollars.