Oyster Creek may not be done generating power after all.
Holtec International, the Camden-based company that is decommissioning the former nuclear plant in Ocean County, sees room on the site for four of its new small modular reactors.
Pat O’Brien, the company’s director of government affairs and communications, said that would be a big step up from what was there before.
“The potential exists for us to put four units down there, which would double what that site was,” he said.
There’s a catch, of course. Holtec wants to build its first two units in Michigan, at the Palisades plant it is bringing back online, to prove the technology works. O’Brien said utilities told the company they’d gladly buy the fourth, fifth or sixth unit — but nobody wanted to be first. So Holtec plans to take that risk itself.
O’Brien spoke Tuesday at the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s Energy and Environmental Policy Conference at the Marriott Delta Hotel in Woodbridge.
He was joined on a nuclear panel with:
- Joseph Milo, senior director, commercial development, generation at PSEG;
- Colin Emerle, senior counsel in the Office of Gov. Mikie Sherrill;
- Bradley Crowell, a commissioner with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Former BPU President Richard Mroz, now a senior director, strategy and regulatory affairs at Archer Public Affairs, moderated.
Here are 11 other things we heard.
11. Cost containment: PSEG has held an early site permit for a new reactor at Artificial Island in Salem County since 2016. Milo said the company can’t take on the cost of building one by itself — or the risk that construction costs run over. “We’re not able to take that risk,” he said. His answer: “It’s going to take a consortium for anything in the state of New Jersey to move forward.”
10. The new law is not a subsidy: Emerle said the state’s new nuclear law is widely misunderstood. He said it works more like a negotiated power purchase at a set price, run through a procurement by the Board of Public Utilities, rather than a payment to build a plant.
9. Mark your calendar: Emerle said the state expects to see actual project proposals soon. “I think we’ll have allocations coming in probably in March,” he said.
8. No promises on price: An audience member noted that renewable energy programs already add about 15% to commercial electric bills and asked what nuclear would add. Emerle said projects that can’t show they’re affordable won’t move forward — but he didn’t promise savings. “There’s no guarantee there,” he said.
7. Nuclear is not quick fix: Milo said New Jersey is about 6 gigawatts short of peak generation needs right now. A new large reactor, he said, wouldn’t be online until “the mid-2030s at best.”
6. Labor costs: When people tell Milo that labor in New Jersey costs too much to build a plant here, he has a stock reply. “That’s because we have labor in New Jersey,” he said.
5. Training takes time: Milo, who spent eight years as a senior reactor operator at Hope Creek, said it takes two years to license a reactor operator, and only about 20 can go through a class at a time. Staffing a plant takes years.
4. Value proposition: O’Brien said the industry spent years assuming the public understood its value — and paid for it when plants like Oyster Creek and Indian Point came up for renewal. “We stuck our head in the sand for a long time,” he said. “People saw cheap gas and went, ‘Yeah, we don’t need you.’”
3. Dedicated employees: When Holtec restarted Palisades, about 125 former workers returned. O’Brien said some told him they didn’t need the money. “I spent 40 years here,” one told him. “It’s really important to me to share my knowledge with the next generation.” Emerle said the state is thinking the same way — his own father just retired from the industry.
2. Big economic numbers: Milo said a large new reactor would bring up to 6,000 construction workers at peak over about a decade and roughly $10 billion in economic impact during construction. The state’s existing nuclear plants, he said, already add about $1.4 billion a year to the state’s economy.
1. Washington is moving faster: O’Brien said the NRC has noticeably sped up. A review Holtec was told would take two years is now expected back in one. Crowell said his hope is to see upgrades at existing plants, one or more restarts and at least one advanced reactor running by 2030.
