Utilities are closing U.S. nuclear-power plants at a rapid clip as they face competition from cheaper sources of electricity and political pressure from critics, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The tally of plants set to close by 2025 has expanded to four, including PG&E Corp.’s Diablo Canyon plant in California and Entergy’s Palisades unit in Michigan. Four others have already closed in the past four years, including Dominion Resources Inc.’s Kewaunee plant in Wisconsin. The retirements are poised to leave 61 nuclear plants in the U.S. by the middle of the next decade. That includes two facilities that are building new reactors. A small number of nuclear plants have closed in the past due to safety or the need for expensive repairs. What’s new is the number of plants closing that are licensed and operational, but no longer profitable in competitive markets. Nuclear plants everywhere are facing a powerful economic foe: fracking. The extraction technique has unlocked vast amounts of natural gas, making generating electricity from that fuel much less expensive and lowering power prices across the country.
