The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRG) holds 17 applications for combined construction and operating licences (COLs) for 26 new nuclear reactors. Four more applications for seven reactors are expected. For a country that has all but abandoned nuclear power over the past three decades -the last construction licence submitted to the NRC was in 1978 and no new reactors have come online in the USA since 1996 - how realistic are such scenarios? Shortly after the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPA 2005), nuclear plant operators and regulated utilities started filing COL applications with the NRC.
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