Gov. Hochul looks to advance nuclear power as wind energy faces headwinds

By Mark Harrington 

With green energy facing a deep freeze from Washington, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent call for steps to advance nuclear power may prove crucial for the state to hit ambitious climate targets while courting energy-hungry high tech, experts said.

Hochul in her State of the State message last week called for a new master plan to chart how to move forward "responsibly" with "advanced" nuclear power, even telegraphing sites that could accommodate it. She offered support for Constellation Energy’s pursuit of federal funding for "one or more" new advanced nuclear reactors at the company’s Nine Mile Point facility in upstate Oswego.

Her remarks preceded by days President Donald Trump's executive order that suspended new leases and permits for offshore wind, while easing the "undue burden" on sources such as oil, natural gas and nuclear.

As she did last year when nuclear power first appeared on her energy radar, the governor said New York's efforts for new nukes would for now be relegated to the upstate region, specifically those north and west of the lower Hudson Valley, leaving out Long Island and New York City as potential sites. Long Island and LIPA, with an expensive legacy tied to the failed Shoreham nuclear plant, holds a 17% interest in the Nine Mile Point 2 plant.

Energy experts say nuclear power, growing in acceptance nationally as Big Tech companies seek dedicated power to run giant data centers, artificial intelligence and chip manufacturing, could prove a key resource for states such New York as they seek to maintain ambitious climate goals with wind power facing headwinds.

Nuclear "is a clean energy source from an emissions perspective," said Paul DeCotis, senior partner at the West Monroe Partners consulting firm and a former deputy energy secretary for New York State.

"If the governor is interested in decarbonizing the economy and offshore wind is being discouraged at the federal level, the state has to look at other alternatives," said DeCotis, a former LIPA vice president of power markets. "Nuclear could be that alternative."

Nuclear power plants operate 24/7 as do the natural gas plants that serve as the core of Long Island’s energy fleet, DeCotis noted, and the newer plants can be centrally located or distributed to meet specific demands, including those for business.

"Electric load is going to grow," DeCotis said. "Demand has to be met." Otherwise the state faces a future of brown outs and blackouts.

Critics point to the 1979 meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, the1986 explosion at Chernobyl and the major 2011 accident at a Fukushima, Japan plant following an earthquake and tsunami as a dangerous legacy that should be avoided.

But supporters say the new generation of nuclear plants would be smaller and safer than their predecessors with modern safeguards and new methods of disposing of waste, such as vitrification of wastewater into solid glass,

Critics, primarily those in the environmental movement, remain skeptical. They continue to view the power source as costly and "dangerous."

"There are still a lot of tools in our toolbox before we have to go nuclear," said Ryan Madden, climate and energy campaigns director at the Long Island Progressive Coalition, an activist group.

The state and LIPA, for instance, should pursue a previously released solar road map for Long Island with the potential to add 19 gigawatts to the grid, he said. And the state can do more in pushing energy efficiency, demand management, grid and transmission upgrades and long-term storage.

Madden said he’s not ready to give up on wind even with the Trump administration's new executive orders, noting long-term energy plans can outlast administrations.

But there are already strong signs nuclear is drawing interest from Big Tech. Microsoft is working with Constellation Energy to reopen an undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island, the Pennsylvania nuke plant that experienced a meltdown at one of its reactors 1979. In South Carolina, state utility Santee Cooper is reportedly seeking buyers in high tech to finish construction of two mothballed reactors, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"There’s a tremendous amount of interest in nuclear from large companies willing to put money at risk" for development, said Tom Falcone, executive direct of the Large Public Power Council, a public utility consortium, and a former LIPA chief executive. "A lot of the interest," he noted, "predates Trump's election."

"New York is one of the state’s that’s taking a really hard look at nuclear and we see a lot of companies willing to invest," Falcone said.

The state's push toward more electric cars and electric heating only heighten the need for backup to the wind and solar plans.

Ken Giradon, director of research for the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative-leaning think tank in Albany, noted there are "very big things in conflict" between the state’s clean electrification efforts and a "natural move toward data centers and heavily subsidized manufacturers" seeking to build new-tech plants in New York.

"Nuclear in some respects can help with that," he said. "The really tough thing is that we’re going into this situation with the state having taken nuclear off the table for three-fourths of the population" but focusing new-nuke development exclusively upstate.

"The state is in a pressure cooker right now when it comes to its energy policies," Giradon said, calling the federal pushback on offshore wind "a very big deal ... Hochul is trying to let off a little of that steam with nuclear."

Hochul’s master plan, expected by the end of next year, calls for a "framework for in-depth examination with stakeholders" for advanced nuclear and recommendations to implement it.

Hochul said New York will help lead a multistate coalition of the National Association of State Energy Officials and the federal Department of Energy’s Office Nuclear Energy Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear, set to launch next month.