With the price of electricity soaring and clean energy alternatives slow to develop, officials in New Jersey and across the country are reconsidering the nuclear option.
A bill recently was advanced out of the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee that would tack an extra $22 to $55 onto consumers’ monthly electricity bills to help pay for a new nuclear reactor at Oyster Creek.
But the capability to bring such plants online is severely constrained by the lack of a nuclear fuel supply chain. Uranium demand is growing, particularly as a means of supplying power to artificial intelligence data centers. The U.S. is a long way off from being able to meet the demand from domestic sources.
A boom in the value of uranium in the western parts of the country is touching off an environmental backlash as mothballed mines are reopening in Wyoming, Texas and Arizona. Others are queuing up for permits in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.