New Study Triggers Debate About Point Beach’s Nuclear Future

A new study says the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant along Lake Michigan is at risk of shutting down early due to economics.

The Kewaunee nuclear power plant shut down a couple months ago, due to a tougher financial climate for one-reactor nuclear plants. Many think the twin-reactor nuclear plant at Point Beach is on firmer financial footing. But a study done for the Vermont Law School lists Point Beach in a second tier of U.S. reactors at the greatest risk of being shut down.

Study author Marc Cooper says generally speaking, nuclear is having a tougher time competing with other sources of power.

“It’s a more demanding technology,” he says. “It’s a more costly technology to operate beyond the fuel costs. When the margin gets squeezed, it feels the pressure a lot more.”

The greater supply and lower price of natural gas for power production are helping put pressure on nuclear power. Some say gas prices are heading up, but Cooper says the markets are not reacting that way so far.

“Sure, you can find people who insist that the sky is about to fall,” says Cooper. “But the dominant opinion and the market fundamentalism we see today suggest natural gas prices are going to keep this pressure on.”

NextEra Energy owns the point beach plant. The company says the new ‘report’ is a creative work of fiction pieced together by cherry-picking facts from a variety of sources. The firm says by all objective measures, even in an era of historically low natural gas prices, Point Beach remains economically viable and plays a key role in providing hundreds of local jobs and clean, affordable energy to the region.

NextEra Energy has made significant investments in the long-term health and safety of Point Beach, and the company says it looks forward to being part of Wisconsin’s clean energy mix for “decades to come.”