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Today there are 104 commercial power reactors operating at 64 sites in the United States, generating approximately 20% of the electric power requirements of the United States. The very same factors that resulted in the surge of nuclear plant orders during the 1970s namely, the increasing price of oil and natural gas and the uncertainty of future air pollution control requirements, are at work today. These same factors are now causing increased attention to be paid to nuclear plants as a viable alternative to fossil fuel central power generation to meet future electrical energy requirements. However, events of the past have resulted in utilities canceling 97 power reactors which would have added roughly 97,000 MWe of installed generation capacity, effectively doubling to 40% the contribution that nuclear power could have made to the electric power requirements of the United States. What events caused the canceling of these plants and what are the issues that have defined the commercial nuclear power industry in the past and will define it in the future? These and other topics relevant to the nuclear power industry will be explored and discussed in this course. In addition, some fundamental technical aspects of commercial nuclear power design will be reviewed to provide a basis for understanding the subtle and sometimes emotional debate that accompanies nuclear power.
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