Climate Changed
Failing Nuclear Power Is Good For Coal, Bad For Earth
Painful economics are killing an industry that’s seen as integral to the fight against climate change.
Construction on the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C. on Sept. 21, 2016.
Photographer: Chuck Burton/AP Photo
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Scana Corp. announced Monday it will stop construction on a nuclear power plant in South Carolina—one of two in development in the U.S. Project costs ballooned in recent years, and the decision should eventually save electricity customers $7 billion.
But the stoppage and others like it may cost everyone more in the long run. The move has implications that last hundreds of years—the residence time of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—as electricity generated from fossil fuels begin to replace aging or expensive nuclear reactors.