Nearly 30 new US nuclear plants planned, official says

Sep 19, 2006, 0:30 GMT

Washington - US utilities plan to build nearly 30 new nuclear power plants over the next decade, and the first firm announcement is likely by early 2008, a US official said Monday.

President George W Bush is pushing nuclear power as a major alternative to US dependence on imported oil, part of a global rebound for the technology since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

In addition to new plants, half of existing US electricity reactors are expected to have their licences renewed for 20 years, US Senator Pete Domenici told a hearing in Washington.

'US utilities are developing the detailed plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants,' US Assistant Secretary of Energy Dennis Spurgeon told the Senate hearing, which is considering funding for US government civilian nuclear energy programmes.

'Almost 30 new nuclear power plants are in the planning process for construction beginning over the next decade,' Spurgeon said.

Overall, 130 nuclear power plants are under construction or planned around the world, including in China, India and Russia, Spurgeon said.

Experts told the hearing that the US should move ahead with plans for a national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in the western state of Nevada to replace storage sites for spent nuclear fuel currently scattered around the country.

The underground storage site, under discussion since the late 1970s, is slated to open in 2017 at the earliest.

Bush has sought to speed progress on Yucca Mountain. He also has authorized research into new nuclear reprocessing technologies.

The United States abandoned reprocessing of nuclear fuel in the 1970s because it produces material that could be used in nuclear weapons. But scientists believe new technologies could allow reprocessing of nuclear waste without producing plutonium.

Spurgeon said the US Energy Department has put out feelers to US and foreign companies that offer nuclear fuel recycling technology and was 'very encouraged' by the initial response.