This fact sheet comes courtesy of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Currently there are 103 commercial nuclear power plants producing electricity in the United States, located at 64 sites in 31 states. They are, on average, 24 years old, and are licensed to operate for 40 years with an option to renew for an additional 20. Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona generates more electricity annually than any other U.S. power plant of any kind, including coal, oil, natural gas and hydro. The three-unit, 3,825-megawatt nuclear plant generated 28,112,611 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2004.

Today, nuclear power plants—the second largest source of electricity in the United States—supply about 20 percent of the nation's electricity each year. In 2004, U.S. nuclear plants generated a record 789 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. In 2003, they produced 764 billion kilowatt-hours.

Power plant reliability is measured by capacity factor—the percentage of electricity actually produced, compared to the total potential electricity that the plant is capable of producing. The average capacity factor for U.S. nuclear plants was 90.5 percent in 2004, compared to coal at 70.8 percent, natural gas at a range of 16.6 to 38.2 percent (depending on the kind of plant), heavy oil steam turbine at 26.2 percent, hydro at 29.6 percent, wind at 32.1 percent, solar at 22.4 percent, and geothermal at 73.4 percent.

Economic Performance

The average electricity production cost in 2004 for nuclear energy was 1.68 cents per kilowatt-hour, for coal-fired plants 1.90 cents, for oil 5.39 cents, and for gas 5.87 cents. Nuclear power plants provide low-cost, predictable power at stable prices and are essential in maintaining the reliability of the U.S. electric power system. The energy in one uranium fuel pellet—the size of the tip of your little finger—is the equivalent of 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal, or 149 gallons of oil.

To produce one Watt of electricity, it takes 1.0 lbs. of coal/kWh from coal plants using steam turbines, 0.48 lbs. of natural gas from natural gas using steam turbines, 0.37 lbs. of natural gas/kWh using combined cycle technology, 0.58 lbs. of Heavy Oil/kWh using steam turbines, and .0000008 lbs. of Uranium enriched at 4% U235 and 96% U238 for use in a commercial nuclear reactor. A 100 watt light bulb that ran continuously for an entire year would consume 876 kWh. Producing the necessary electricity would require 876 lbs. of coal, 377-324 lbs. of natural gas, 508 lbs. of oil, or 0.0007 lbs. of Uranium enriched to 4% for use in a commercial nuclear reactor.

Environmental Protection

Of all energy sources, nuclear energy has perhaps the lowest impact on the environment, including water, land, habitat, species and air resources. Nuclear energy is the most eco-efficient of all energy sources because it produces the most electricity in relation to its minimal environmental impact. Nuclear energy is the world's largest source of emission-free energy. Nuclear power plants produce no controlled air pollutants, such as sulfur and particulates, or greenhouse gases. The use of nuclear energy in place of other energy sources helps to keep the air clean, preserve the Earth's climate, avoid ground-level ozone formation and prevent acid rain.

In 2004, U.S. nuclear power plants prevented 3.43 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 1.11 million tons of nitrogen oxide, and 696.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the Earth’s atmosphere compared to what would have been released using the other mentioned energy providers. The NOx emissions avoided by U.S. nuclear power plants are equivalent to the NOx emissions from approximately 58 million passenger cars (43 percent of the U.S. total). The carbon dioxide emissions avoided by U.S. nuclear power plants are equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions from approximately 134 million passenger cars (99 percent of the U.S. total).

Nuclear power plants were responsible for more than a third of the total voluntary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions reported by U.S. companies in 2003 (the last year available), according to the Energy Information Administration. Emissions reductions from nuclear energy usage amounted to 122 million metric tons of CO2, 37 percent of the 332 million metric tons of total CO2 reductions reported.

Nuclear Waste

Nuclear (or radioactive) waste is a byproduct from nuclear reactors, fuel processing plants, and institutions such as hospitals and research facilities. It also results from nuclear reactors being decommissioned and other nuclear facilities that are permanently shut down. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission separates wastes into two broad classifications: high-level or low-level waste.

HIGH-LEVEL WASTE

High-level radioactive waste is uranium fuel that has been used in a nuclear power reactor and is "spent" or is no longer efficient in generating power to the reactor to produce electricity. Spent fuel is thermally hot as well as being highly radioactive, requiring remote handling and shielding.

The basic fuel of a nuclear power reactor contains uranium 235, which is in ceramic pellets inside of metal rods. Before these fuel rods are used, they are only slightly radioactive and may be handled without special shielding. During the nuclear reaction, the fuel "fissions," which means that an atom of uranium is split releasing two or three neutrons and a small amount of heat. The released neutrons then strike other atoms, causing them to split, and a chain reaction is formed, which releases large amounts of heat. This heat is used to generate electricity at nuclear power plants.

The splitting of relatively heavy uranium atoms during reactor operation creates radioactive isotopes of several lighter elements, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90. These elements, called "fission products," account for most of the heat and penetrating radiation in high-level waste. Some uranium atoms also capture neutrons from fissioning uranium atoms nearby to form heavier elements like plutonium. These heavier-than-uranium, or "transuranic," elements do not produce nearly the amount of heat or penetrating radiation that fission products do, but they take much longer to decay. Transuranic wastes, also called "TRU," therefore account for most of the radioactive hazard remaining in high-level waste after a thousand years.

Radioactive isotopes will eventually decay, or disintegrate, to harmless materials. However, while they are decaying, they emit radiation. Some isotopes decay in hours or even minutes, but others decay very slowly. Strontium-90 and cesium-137 have half-lives of about 30 years (that means that half the radioactivity of a given quantity of strontium-90, for example, will decay in 30 years). Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years.

High-level wastes are hazardous to humans and other life forms because of their high radiation levels that are capable of producing fatal doses during short periods of direct exposure. For example, ten years after removal from a reactor, the surface dose rate for a typical spent fuel assembly exceeds 10,000 rem/hour, whereas a fatal whole-body dose for humans is about 500 rem (ref. DOE/NE-0007). Furthermore, if constituents of these high-level wastes were to get into ground water or rivers, they could enter into food chains. Although the dose produced through this indirect exposure is much smaller than a direct exposure dose, there is a greater potential for a larger population to be exposed.

Reprocessing separates residual uranium and unfissioned plutonium from the fission products. The uranium and plutonium can be used again as fuel. Most of the high-level waste (other than spent fuel) generated over the last 35 years has come from reprocessing of fuel from government-owned plutonium production reactors and from naval research and test reactors. A small amount of liquid high-level waste was generated from the reprocessing of commercial power reactor fuel in the 1960's and early 1970's. There is no commercial reprocessing of nuclear power fuel in the United States at present. Almost all existing commercial high-level waste is in the form of unreprocessed spent fuel.

LOW-LEVEL WASTE

Low-level wastes, which are generally defined as radioactive wastes other than high-level and wastes from uranium recovery operations, are commonly disposed of in near-surface facilities rather than in a geologic repository that is required for high-level wastes. There is no intent to recover the wastes once they are disposed of.

Part 61 of the NRC's regulations (Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations) sets forth the procedures, criteria, terms and conditions for licensing sites for land disposal of low-level waste. The requirements established under Part 61 also provide the basis for Agreement State regulation, since State rules must be compatible with NRC requirements.

There have been seven operating commercial facilities in the United States licensed to bury low-level radioactive wastes. They are located at (1)West Valley, New York; (2) Maxey Flats near Morehead, Kentucky; (3) Sheffield, Illinois; (4) Beatty, Nevada; (5) Hanford, Washington; (6) Clive, Utah; and (7) Barnwell, South Carolina. At the present time, only the latter three sites are receiving waste for burial and are regulated by the states. The West Valley, Maxey Flats, Sheffield and Beatty sites have permanently stopped receiving wastes. Burial of transuranic waste is limited at all of the sites. Transuranic waste includes material contaminated with radioactive elements (e.g., neptunium, americium, plutonium) that are artificially made and is produced primarily from reprocessing spent fuel and from use of plutonium in fabrication of nuclear weapons.