After decades without a nuclear reactor being built, 15 applications before reg

FORT WORTH, Texas: The nation’s nuclear energy industry, all but stagnant for three decades, is quietly building toward a resurgence with more than two dozen new reactors on the drawing board.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received applications to build 15 new reactors in eight states. Later this year, plants in seven other states plan to seek permits for a dozen more reactors.

The first could be built and operating by 2016.

While 104 commercial nuclear reactors remain in operation in the United States, the NRC has not approved a construction license for a new reactor since 1978.

The nuclear revival is far from a done deal, however. Companies still must arrange financing, and will need federal loan guarantees and states’ approval to hike rates to pay for construction if those loans are to be affordable.

International Herald Tribune