Marvin Fertel, President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), acknowledged on October 26, 2015 that “a few” more U.S. reactors are in line to announce permanent closure in the coming months.
The nuclear industry’s chief K Street lobbyist conceded to a trend that Vermont Law School professor Mark Cooper saw coming six years ago. Cooper’s nuclear economics study, “Renaissance in Reverse”, cites more than three dozen U.S. nuclear power station in financial trouble. Cooper identifies twelve reactors on the short list under the greatest financial pressure and likely NEI’s unidentified few. Cooper’s research shows that it’s more than just economics. Mounting risk factors, poor performance, local and state opposition are all weighing in as last straws.