Nuclear power is facing stiff competition from natural gas.
Natural gas prices are low, still hovering at around $2 per million BTU. Gas plants are cheaper and faster to build than nuclear plants.
To address this situation, the NEI launched its “Nuclear Promise” program in December. Its goal is to reduce electric generating costs by 30% across the nuclear power industry by 2018.
That’s just two years from now. We’ll have to move fast.
The desire is to offset the 28% increase in generating costs over the last 12 years. There were three factors that drove that increase:
Fuel costs (up 25%)
Operating costs (up 13%)
Capital costs (up 109%)
The Nuclear Promise is a two-part strategy: increase revenues and reduce costs. To quote NEI:
“The three-year program will identify efficiency measures and adopt best practices and technology solutions to improve operations, reduce generation costs and prevent premature reactor closures.”
Read the 8-page white paper here:
NEI – Delivering the Nuclear Promise white paper
Then, review the efficiency bulletins to see specific actions the NEI recommends that plants take: