Full Title: Base-load Electricity from Natural Gas and Nuclear Power: The Role of Federal and State Policy
Author(s): Mary English
Publisher(s): University of Tennessee Knoxville
Publication Date: March 1, 2013
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Demand for electricity is being tempered by energy efficiency improvements, and renewable energy sources are increasingly viable. Nevertheless, large‐scale electricity generation will be needed for the foreseeable future. With growing concerns about greenhouse gases and hazardous as well as conventional air pollutants, coal has fallen out of favor. Its traditional role as the mainstay of electricity generation is shrinking. What will take up the slack? Gas‐fired plants and nuclear power plants are the two most likely candidates.
The white paper prepared following a symposium held by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy on September 20‐21, 2012, based on its presentations and discussions. The symposium featured 18 nationally‐ and regionally‐known speakers who collectively provided a
comparative analysis of the technical, economic, environmental, human health, safety, and national
security attributes of these two electricity sources within the context of current and prospective federal
and state policies. The comparative analysis drew upon four illustrative case examples – two gas‐fired
and two nuclear; two from the public sector and two from the private sector:
- The John Sevier combustion‐turbine combined‐cycle (CTCC) plant of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in northeastern Tennessee
- The Sutton CTCC plant of Duke Energy near Wilmington, North Carolina
- TVA’s possible small modular reactor project at its Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
- The Westinghouse AP1000 project of the Southern Company at Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in
- eastern Georgia