Energy

EXCLUSIVE: Gov’t Red Tape Costs Every Nuclear Plant $63 Million Annually

(Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
Font Size:

Red tape and government bureaucracy is killing the U.S. nuclear industry by costing the average power plant $63 million annually, according to a new study by the American Action Forum.

The study found that government regulations cost the nuclear industry $15.7 billion or about $219 million per power plant. Most of this cost was in complying with government regulations about the safe disposal of nuclear waste, but government mandated paperwork alone accounted for $63.3 million annually.

”Nuclear power faces growing regulatory hurdles that do not reflect the improving safety and innovation within the industry,” Philip Rossetti, an energy data analyst involved in the research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “A good federal policy should be focused on addressing the more significant issues, like licensing a nuclear waste repository, rather than just doubling down on regulation.”

When the costs of disposing of nuclear waste are excluded, AAF found that each year nuclear power plants pay $8.6 million in paperwork costs, $22 million in Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) fees and $32.7 million in regulatory liabilities. Nuclear experts previously told TheDCNF that extremely high regulatory burdens are killing the U.S. nuclear industry’s ability to innovate.

AAF reviewed profitability data and found that for 6 nuclear power plants, regulatory burdens exceeded their profit margins. For another 15 plants regulatory burdens exceeded the nominal U.S. corporate tax rate, meaning these reactors spent more on government-required paperwork then they paid in taxes.

The U.S. currently operates 61 commercially operated nuclear power plants, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The research concludes that the federal government is putting an onerous regulatory burdens placed on the nuclear industry that is stifling innovation and harming the U.S.’s overall energy mix. AAF’s report concludes that there is “little doubt regulatory costs are one factor contributing to the retirement of nuclear facilities across the nation.”

The study states that the heavy regulations are likely the cause of a slowdown in the construction of many new U.S. reactors and the early decommissioning of several others. The average age for American nuclear reactors is 35, making them nearly obsolete by modern design standards and near the end of their 40-year operating licenses. Sixteen American nuclear reactors are more than 42 years old.

AAF estimated last year that U.S. nuclear plants spent an estimated $4.2 million to meet government paperwork requirements and another $4.4 million to pay government-mandated security staff.. In addition to paperwork requirement costs, the average plant spends approximately $14 million on various government fees.

Heavy government regulations combined with polices intended to support wind and solar power make it incredibly difficult to profitably operate a nuclear power plant, according to a study published last October by libertarian R Street Institute. Eventually, these regulations will cause nuclear reactors to shut down, which would increase carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Cost isn’t the only factor identified complicating nuclear power expansion.

Getting regulatory approval from the NRC to build a new reactor can take up to 25 years, while building a new plant by itself only takes about 10 of those years. The NRC requires so much paperwork from the nuclear power providers that the average plant requires 86 full-time employees just to go through it all.

Follow Andrew on Twitter

Send tips to andrew@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel