US nuclear power performance

During the past decade there has been a steady diminution in the economic expectations and public support for nuclear power in the USA. An increasing number of nuclear plants have been delayed, deferred, or cancelled, and those being completed face unforeseen rising costs. As a result, both the electric utility industry and the public generally perceive nuclear power, based on light water reactor technology, as intrinsically uneconomic and troublesome as a future option for power generation. The authors believe that this is not because of the inherent nature of nuclear power in general or light water reactors in particular. It arises mainly from the adverse regulatory and institutional framework in which electrical utilities and power plant constructors have to operate in the USA.