According to preliminary annual data released by the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic nuclear power generation slightly increased in 2018 (+0.3%) and reached a total of 807 TWh in 2018, i.e. above the previous 2010 record. This result was achieved thanks to a combination of added capacity through uprates (only one 1.2 GW nuclear plant was commissioned between 2010 and 2018, while uprates added 2 GW of capacity) and shorter refueling and maintenance cycles, in spite of the shutdown of several nuclear power plants since 2010 (seven closures for a total capacity of 5.3 GW).
However, the EIA expects that domestic nuclear power output will decline in the near future. Indeed, only two reactors - Georgia's Vogtle Units 3 and 4 - will be commissioned in 2021 and 2022, adding 2.2 GW of new capacity. However, twelve nuclear power plants should be shut down by 2025 - including two in 2019, three in 2020 and four more in 2021 - which should reduce US nuclear power capacity by 10.5 GW. According to the NRC, only 60 MW of thermal uprate applications are anticipated through 2020 and current market conditions (relatively low wholesale electricity prices and flat demand growth) are unlikely to incite nuclear plant owners to invest in capacity expansions.
As of 2019, the United States had 98 operational nuclear power reactors spread across 60 plants, of which two, i.e. Pilgrim, Massachusetts’s only nuclear plant, and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania—are expected to retire later in 2019.
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