Hochul upgrades nuclear vision for N.Y.

In June of last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on the New York Power Authority-the state's public power utility-to add at least 1 GW of new capacity to the electrical grid through the construction of an advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York to support the state's decarbonization goals.

It was good news for the nuclear community, to be sure, but in Hochul's State of the State address in Albany earlier this week, she made that objective sound almost unambitious.

"Last summer, I took the bold step of greenlighting the first nuclear power project in a generation, a vital part of our all-of-the-above approach to energy," Hochul said. "At the time, we set a goal of building 1 gigawatt of nuclear power. But if there's one thing I believe, it's this: Go big or go home. So I've decided to raise the bar to 5 gigawatts. That's more nuclear energy than has been built anywhere in the United States in the last 30 years! And to make sure New Yorkers are ready, we'll launch a nuclear workforce development program so we can forge our clean energy future together."

Hochul on December 9 announced $40 million in new annual workforce development funding over the next four years from the NYPA to develop the workforce necessary to support advanced nuclear energy in upstate New York. The utility's board of trustees approved the funding the same day and awarded an additional $4 million to universities and organizations to develop and expand programs that prepare New Yorkers for careers in artificial intelligence, electromechanical trades, and advanced power systems to meet the evolving needs of the renewable energy sector.

Plan details: According to a press release from the governor's office, the 5 GW initiative, dubbed the Nuclear Reliability Backbone, directs state agencies "to establish a clear pathway for additional advanced nuclear generation to support grid reliability" and will be developed by a new Department of Public Service process "to consider, review, and facilitate a cost-effective pathway to 4 gigawatts of new nuclear energy that will combine with existing nuclear generation and the NYPA's previously announced 1 gigawatt project."

Should the new, 5 GW plan reach fruition, New York's nuclear-generation capacity would increase to more than 8.3 GWe. Currently, the state is home to three nuclear power facilities: FitzPatrick, in Scriba, N.Y., with one 842-MWe boiling water reactor; the co-located Nine Mile Point, with one 620-MWe BWR and one 1,287-MWe BWR; and Ginna, in Ontario, N.Y., with one 576-MWe BWR.