Research Evaluates Transitioning from Coal to Nuclear Energy

Kemmerer, a town of 2,400 residents in western Wyoming, was built on coal: It’s named after a late 1800s coal magnate and was founded by the vice president of a coal company. For much of its history, jobs in Kemmerer have centered on coal extraction and the generation of coal power.

But this summer, Kemmerer found itself at the forefront of an energy transition. TerraPower, a nuclear power development company co-founded by Bill Gates, broke ground on a new 345 MW Natrium sodium-cooled nuclear reactor on the site of the town’s former coal-fired power plant.

New research suggests that this transformation could repeat itself across the U.S. Most active U.S. coal plants could be repurposed to generate nuclear energy from a technological and safety perspective, the new study finds — echoing results from similar recent analyses. But legal, regulatory, and public opinion concerns may ultimately determine which plants are repurposed.

“You wouldn’t want to build a new energy facility in a vulnerable or accident-prone area, but as it turns out, that’s not the case for most of the coal plant sites,” says senior author Aditi Verma, an assistant professor in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the Univ. of Michigan. “What we have instead are a range of other factors that are really open to negotiation by policymakers on the state level.”

There have been no new coal plants built or planned in the U.S. since the opening of the Sandy Creek Energy Station in Texas in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Meanwhile, 23% of coal-fired capacity in the country is expected to retire by 2029, the EIA reports. These closing plants leave behind key...