Actually, four are being built right now. Two southeast utilities are the largest construction projects in the US right now. Our utility has already spent $500million clearing land and doing base work on two new reactors (out of a ~$12billion program). They should go online in the next 6 years or so and produce another ~2300MWe total.
In the nuclear industry, the past few years have been our renaissance
As a nuclear engineer, I'm aware of the benefits and dangers. I'm certainly not an oblivious fanboy. There is no perfect energy technology yet (especially when you factor in cost). But, it does play an important role in our energy dependency.
Dave
I was completely unaware of this, although I am aware of some passed funding coming from the current administration. What fuel base will the reactors be using? (232-Thorium?) I ask because there have been some MAJOR revelations in regards to the production and byproduct of nuclear energy and the byproducts can be safer than coal-burn waste with much greater yield.
To be fair, I pay more attention to the production of nuclear isotopes used in medical imaging than power production, so my involvement may be less than yours.
