The US Department of Energy recently pointed out that if 80% of the coal-fired power plants in the United States can be converted into nuclear power plants, it can help the United States achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The research was conducted by Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and was also sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the Department of Energy. The study pointed out that 80% of the 157 decommissioned coal-fired power plants and 237 coal-fired power plant sites currently in operation in the United States can be converted into advanced reactors smaller than GW.
The report also includes actual assessments of pending and operational coal-fired power plants. Of the 125 decommissioned coal-fired power plants that were assessed to have 64.8GWe capacity potential, 190 coal-fired power plants were assessed to have a potential of up to 198.5GWe capacity for operational coal-fired power plants. . Compared with greenfield projects that are not constrained by previous work, the capital cost of building nuclear energy could be 15% to 35% lower, the report said.
In view of the fact that nuclear power plants usually operate at full rated capacity for 24 hours, the capacity factor is close to 1, which is higher than that of any kind of energy, so the capacity of nuclear power plants to replace coal-fired power plants can also be relatively small. The team found that regional economic activity could increase by as much as $275 million, which could also lead to 650 new permanent jobs. (Source: WeChat public account "Hey Energy heypower")
The U.S. Department of Energy said a major energy retrofit could potentially save millions of dollars by reusing transmission lines from coal-fired power plants, electrical equipment such as switchyards, cooling pools or towers, and infrastructure such as roads and office buildings. In addition, the study found that if nuclear power plants replaced large coal-fired plants, regional emissions could drop by 86 percent, equivalent to taking more than 500,000 cars off the road.
According to Reuters, U.S. power companies plan to phase out more than 14,500MW of coal-fired plants in 2022 or convert them to natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Administration. Fossil fuels are pointless things.
But nuclear energy is not only its advantages. In the past, various furnace core meltdowns and radioactive accidents have caused discoloration. At the same time, because of the need for cooling, the reactors are all built by the river or the sea. It is an earthquake accompanied by a tsunami, and there is a high risk. But unlike fossil-fuel power plants, nuclear power is arguably zero-emissions and more reliable than coal and natural gas, much less intermittent renewable energy.(Source: WeChat public account "Hey Energy heypower")
