Nuclear Power Plant - Future Power Plants

Future Power Plants

A number of new designs for nuclear power generation, collectively known as the Generation IV reactors, are the subject of active research and may be used for practical power generation in the future. Many of these new designs specifically attempt to make fission reactors cleaner, safer and/or less of a risk to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Passively safe plants (such as the ESBWR) are available to be built and other designs that are believed to be nearly fool-proof are being pursued. Fusion reactors, which may be viable in the future, diminish or eliminate many of the risks associated with nuclear fission.

The 1600 MWe European Pressurized Reactor reactor is being built in Olkiluoto, Finland. A joint effort of French AREVA and German Siemens AG, it will be the largest reactor in the world. In December 2006 construction was about 18 months behind schedule so completion was expected 2010-2011.

As of March 2007, there are seven nuclear power plants under construction in India, and five in China.

In November 2011 Gulf Power stated that by the end of 2012 it hopes to finish buying off 4000 acres of land north of Pensacola, Florida in order to build a possible nuclear power plant.

Russia has begun building the world’s first floating nuclear power plant. The £100 million vessel, the Lomonosov, is the first of seven plants that Moscow says will bring vital energy resources to remote Russian regions.

By 2025, Southeast Asia nations would have a total of 29 nuclear power plants, Indonesia will have 4 nuclear power plants, Malaysia 4, Thailand 5 and Vietnam 16 from nothing at all in 2011.

An expansion at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant in east central Georgia, USA, for Units 3 and 4, is scheduled to be completed in 2016 or 2017. The two new Plant Vogtle reactors represent the first nuclear power construction in the United States since the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979.