NYS eyes new nuclear power to meet climate goals, demand for electricity

ALBANY — New York State leaders are looking to add new nuclear power to help meet the state’s ambitious climate goals and growing energy needs as it looks to become a hub for chip manufacturers and artificial intelligence industries.

Proponents say nuclear power and new "advanced" nuclear technologies are safe, clean and in some cases could be located closer to where the state’s largest energy needs are in New York City and on Long Island.

But critics say nuclear power is expensive, poses health risks and plants could take decades to build. One of the biggest challenges would be public approval, especially in places such as Long Island, where public opposition helped shutter the Shoreham nuclear plant in the early '90s before it even became operational.

Nationally, some states and companies are already betting on nuclear power, which doesn’t produce greenhouse gasses when in operation.

In October, Amazon and Google announced plans to invest in small modular reactors to meet the needs of power-hungry data centers and AI. The same day, the Biden administration announced $900 million to spur the development of new "next generation" nuclear technologies — providing a monetary incentive for states to get on board.

"For decades in the United States no new plants were being built because of public opposition, and that has softened as the world deals with climate change," said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

New York State energy leaders in Syracuse in September announced they would be seeking public comment on a draft blueprint for the consideration of advanced nuclear energy technologies as the state weans off gas and oil.

The state’s climate goal is to get all electricity from emission-free sources by 2040 and reduce economywide emissions by 85% from 1990 levels by 2050. The process involves eliminating the state power grid's reliance on fossil fuels, which is a challenge with demand for electricity increasing to power electric vehicles and buildings and new power-hungry industries such as cloud computing, AI and semiconductor or chip, manufacturers. Chips are used in everything from cars to cellphones.

"We need to be smart and entertain all the options," Gov. Kathy Hochul said of the need to look at a variety of fuel sources. "We already have nuclear in New York. This is not a new concept," Hochul told reporters last month after announcing an AI supercomputer at the state University at Albany.

There are three nuclear plants in the state, all located in Western New York — including the oldest operating reactor in the nation at Nine Mile Point on Lake Ontario, which began operating in December 1969.

If New York moves forward, energy and policy experts say new nuclear would face many challenges, including where to put new reactors, the need for transmission lines and skilled workers, and nuclear facilities can take over a decade and cost anywhere from millions to billions of dollars to build.

Here’s what to know:

New nuclear

Nuclear reactors operate using nuclear fission, with most plants using uranium atoms. The atoms collide with neutrons, split and release a large amount of energy through radiation and heat, which is used to turn the turbines that run electric power generators.

There’s a lot of fear and stigma around nuclear, largely because of old designs, said Matthew Szydagis, an associate professor of physics at University at Albany.

Infamous examples include the failure and semi-meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. The Pennsylvania incident led to sweeping changes and increased protections, but it also made the public increasingly wary of nuclear power.

Much has changed, Szydagis said. Design improvements have increased safety and efficiency, operating with lower pressures and using alternative cooling systems. And emerging technology known as small modular reactors, or SMRs, are said to be less expensive to build and more compact, making them a potential option for urban spaces.

SMRs are estimated to cost between $50 million for microreactors and $3 billion for larger units, according to Cleantech Group, a research and consulting company. Nuclear facilities are typically built with funding from a variety of sources including private, corporate, the federal government and taxpayers, according to the World Nuclear Association.  

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023 certified the first SMR design in the country .  The project, however, failed as costs ballooned from $5.3 billion to $9.3 billion due largely to increases in construction costs, according to news reports. No SMRs are currently operational in the United States. 

Federal legislation passed last year aims to boost the development of advanced reactors and ease the regulatory process.

"There are dozens of possible designs" that can make reactors even safer, with "zero carbon footprint, zero chance of meltdown, and zero waste," Szydagis said. 

Nuclear in NY

Nuclear power represented 22% of all energy generated in New York in 2023, the third largest behind only dual fuel, meaning gas powered with the use of oil when necessary and hydro, according to the New York Independent System Operator, or NYISO.

And there are pockets where more energy is needed, particularly downstate — including New York City and Long Island — which as of 2023 was 81% reliant on oil and gas with only 4% of its energy sources from zero-emission fuel sources, according to NYISO. Upstate had 91% zero-emission fuel sources, mostly hydro and nuclear.

But the early stages of the state's energy transition have resulted in the retirement of fossil fuel generation faster than renewable resources are coming online, creating concern over the reliability of the grid and ability to meet future demand, according to the NYISO.

Nuclear power could help, creating a large amount of energy without producing greenhouse gas emissions, proponents said. 

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA, commissioned a draft blueprint report citing the prospect of using advanced nuclear technologies, outlining potential challenges and opportunities.

New York’s three nuclear power plants were built in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, all of which are owned and operated by Constellation, which also owns plants in other states. 

The company invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure New York’s current fleet runs safely and efficiently, said Richard Barlette, the company’s state government affairs director.

In September, Microsoft and Constellation signed an agreement to reopen a unit of the Three Mile Island plant to offset data center electricity use. Energy experts say bringing back a retired nuclear facility has never been done before.

Proponents

Nuclear power plants are really important because they provide what’s called base load, said Ken Girardin, research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank. Base load is the minimum amount of electric power required to meet day-to-day power needs. When demand is higher, like when people come home from work and watch TV, it’s called peak load, which requires supplemental energy known as dispatchable fuel. 

Nuclear power facilities are "not reliant on the weather, they're not reliant on oil deliveries, they're not reliant on natural gas," Girardin said.

AI and semiconductor industries rely on a steady, reliable energy supply, and the availability of steady nuclear and hydro power is part of what drew chip manufacturing giants such as Micron to Central New York, said Michael Fancher, director of the state Center for Advanced Technology in Nanoelectronics and Nanomaterials in Albany.

Nuclear is the "right direction to go in," Assemb. Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square) told Newsday, adding, "I think that if we’re realistically even going to come close to some of these mandates it has to be a component." 

Nuclear is a vital option, agreed Gavin Donohue, president and CEO of the Independent Power Producers of New York, a trade group. "It’s important that you have a welcoming community, the money, a company that is willing to do it, and have the workforce to make sure it’s done safely," he said.

Labor needs to be part of the conversation from the beginning, so workers can be trained and ready, said James Slevin, president of the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, which represents 45,000 active workers in utility sectors across the nation. Many nuclear workers had to find new jobs and some moved out of state after the 2021 closure of the Indian Point plant in the Hudson Valley, he said.

If New York moves forward with new facilities, many of those workers would be eager to move back, Slevin said, adding that these are "good-paying jobs." 

Opposition

While operations may be clean, the process for mining and refining uranium and making fuel reactors requires large amounts of energy and the use of fossil fuels, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Nuclear energy is not considered a renewable energy source because its fuel, typically uranium, is a finite resource. Once used up, the uranium fuel rods are radioactive.

The National Resources Defense Council has acknowledged that nuclear is a low-carbon resource, but it's not renewable and it's not clean, said Jackson Morris, director of state power sector policy for the nonprofit environmental advocacy group. And there’s no viable and safe way to deal with waste, he said.

Horner said the state's focus on nuclear is a "distraction" from its failure to meet the first climate goal: getting 70% of energy from renewable sources by 2030, which the state announced this summer.

"Here’s the newest shiny object to say, ‘We’re solving that problem and by the way, we’re not going to be here when it becomes clear whether they made it or not,’ " he said, adding that new nuclear facilities would take decades to put in place.

Subsidies to current facilities, security and waste storage all come at a cost to the public, Horner said.

An investment in new nuclear is a "perpetuation of environmental injustice and an investment in grave and deadly health hazards," said Ryan Madden, the climate and energy campaigns director for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, an activist group. "It kind of deprioritizes renewable energy."

He described harmful mining processes and "exorbitant" costs, adding that from the coalition’s perspective, there’s still no way to do it safely.

The activist group, one of the early opponents of Shoreham, remains "very opposed to nuclear," he said.

Nuclear facilities can cost billions to build and have a history of substantial cost overruns, according to the recent NYSERDA-commissioned report. There also are limitations to where plants can be located, because of the need for emergency evacuation routes, experts said.

What’s next

NYSERDA is collecting comments on the draft blueprint for nuclear through Nov. 8.

Much would have to happen before advanced nuclear comes to New York, according to energy and policy experts. Sites would have to be identified, there would need to be funding, and transmission lines would be needed to connect new power to the grid. The Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator, also would play a role, and approval would be needed from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The state climate law also may need to be amended, Ra said. 

Assemb. Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, said she’s open to the idea, but pushed for more time for the public to comment on the blueprint.

"There clearly would be concerns," she told Newsday, particularly regarding potential radioactive properties.

Reviving old reactors is not likely to happen in New York because the only possible option, Indian Point, isn't viable because of health and safety reasons, experts said.

One of New York’s biggest challenges would be where to put new nuclear technology and how to get public buy-in.

A viable option would be to locate new nuclear at the state’s current facilities where the infrastructure is available and the public is already onboard, experts said.

"There are natural synergies out there with existing sites," Barlette said.

Existing facilities are upstate and demand is downstate.

The most efficient system is to have the energy source located near the demand, said Keith Schue, a board member for Nuclear New York, a nonprofit advocacy group.

The Long Island Power Authority is not permitted to build and operate a nuclear facility, and any new facility would likely face public backlash.

"There’s kind of like a NIMBY [not in my backyard] mindset on Long Island," Madden said, pointing to what happened with Shoreham and what's currently happening with moratoriums on battery storage. 

Public discussion needs to be part of the equation, because there’s a "misconception" that people don’t like nuclear, Schue said.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said she's not opposed to looking at new nuclear, but she cited concerns with cost, the time it takes to build and had questions about how safe and clean it is.

"At this point in New York State, based on what we know, that’s not a realistic option," Krueger said. "We are on a very short deadline because of the planetary crisis."