U.S. looks at how to convert coal power plants to nuclear

Existing coal plants in the United States could be converted to nuclear facilities as part of the clean energy transition, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that details how coal-to-nuclear (C2N) might work.

The DOE says the shift to nuclear power at hundreds of coal facilities could boost the nation’s nuclear capacity to 350 gigawatts (gW), nearly four times more than the level of nuclear generation today. The study, conducted jointly by the Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, identified both retired and operating coal plants that could be used as an advanced nuclear site.

About 80% of the 394 facilities could be considered for the transition, the report said. A case study included in the report offers insights into what that would mean in terms of the cost of conversion, job creation, and the overall regional economic impacts.

“Based on the nuclear technology choices and sizes evaluated to replace a large coal plant (generating 1,200 megawatts of electricity), nuclear overnight costs of capital could decrease by 15% to 35% when compared to a greenfield construction project, through the reuse of infrastructure from the coal facility,” the report said.

“Nuclear replacement designs can have a lower capacity size because nuclear power plants run at higher capacity factors than coal power plants.”

The idea’s not entirely new but it hasn’t been implemented yet in the U.S., though one coal to nuclear (C2N) project is under way in the western state of Wyoming. The DOE case study is based on needs in the Midwest part of the country, with the model drawn from a composite of 12 retired plant facilities across the region. Along with the Midwest, the Southeast has the largest number of coal facilities where C2N might work.

“High construction costs have consistently plagued the nuclear energy industry for years, but a C2N transition can help lower these costs—especially for first-of-a-kind development projects,” said the DOE in a statement released Tuesday.

“C2N projects could use the existing land, connection to the grid, and office buildings. Reusing the coal plant’s electrical equipment (transmission connection, switchyard, etc.) and civil infrastructure (roads, buildings, etc.) would also save millions of dollars upfront.”

The 127-page report compared the benefits of two types of nuclear installations built by West Coast manufacturers: NuScale, a manufacturer of small modular reactors (SMRs), and TerraPower, the Bill Gates-backed company developing several next-gen nuclear technologies.

The conversion of a coal-fired plant to nuclear also would create more long-term jobs because more workers are needed to operate the nuclear sites, though the total would depend on which type of reactor is installed and other variables.

Above all else, the DOE says the C2N concept would lower carbon emissions significantly and advance the net-zero goal of 2050 established in the U.S.

“Based on the case study, greenhouse gas emissions in the region would fall by 86% when nuclear power plants replace coal. This reduction is equivalent to taking more than 500,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles off the roads,” the DOE said.

“The improved air quality could lead to lower incidence of health issues associated with air pollution such as asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease.”