Five years after the last reactor at Indian Point shut down, Albany has rediscovered the appeal of electricity that runs around the clock without burning fossil fuels.

Governor Kathy Hochul is calling for 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity, with at least 1 GW to be developed by the publicly owned New York Power Authority, alongside a separate 4 GW initiative. No technology has been officially selected, but the leading candidates are the large Westinghouse AP1000 and the smaller 300 MW BWRX-300 from GE Vernova Hitachi. Each path carries well-documented trade-offs: the only recently completed AP1000 reactors in the United States, at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, finished years behind schedule and billions over budget, while the BWRX-300 — the design chosen for Ontario Power Generation's Darlington project in Canada — has not yet been built in the United States, leaving cost and schedule claims for smaller reactors largely unproven domestically.

As Canary Media reports, the reversal follows this spring's weakening of New York's climate law. The state's difficulties in delivering large renewable projects have also made it harder to stay on a pure-play renewables path — a situation made worse by the Trump administration's assault on offshore wind.

Building new nuclear generation offers a governor facing re-election a rare win-win: dependable low-carbon power to complement renewables, plus industrial investment, construction jobs, and promises of lower bills. Eight upstate communities have expressed interest in hosting projects. With strongly Republican-leaning counties — including Jefferson, Oswego, and Schuyler — among the possibilities, Gov. Hochul could use the new mega-projects to score political points.

NYISO's 2026 Power Trends report warns that trying to replace over 4 GW of generation that is almost always on (nuclear) with less than 3 GW of generation that is almost always off (renewables) is not a formula for setting the state up for future success. The backdrop is rising electricity demand driven in part by data-center growth, which has pushed utilities and grid operators across the country to re-examine firm, always-available generation.

The NYISO report also highlights a problem shared by nuclear and other generation sources: actually delivering the power where it needs to go. With most energy demand downstate, additional dependencies and bottlenecks come into play, and transmission capacity becomes a constraint in moving power from upstate.

Then there is Indian Point. As previously reported, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has pushed to revive the roughly 2 GW facility, whose retirement increased reliance on fossil generation. Hochul opposes reopening it while championing new construction upstate. A restart would require substantial work, but a precedent is already being set by other restarts around the country, most notably at Palisades in Michigan, which has received federal support toward becoming the first restarted commercial reactor in U.S. history. If there is genuine concern in the state about meeting baseload needs, outright rejecting the restart of a nuclear facility becomes a confusing position.

Opponents argue that nuclear spending could crowd out faster alternatives, and that new plants would not produce power until the 2030s at the earliest given typical licensing and construction timelines. Senator Kevin Parker's pending legislation would impose a 30-month pause on taxpayer and ratepayer support for new or restarted nuclear facilities while a task force studies costs and alternatives.

Selective nuclear enthusiasm extends well beyond Albany. Texas committed $350 million to advanced nuclear development in 2025, yet Governor Greg Abbott fought the proposed Andrews County spent-fuel storage facility, and Texas enacted restrictions in 2021 on offsite high-level waste storage. New Mexico committed nearly $5 million in development assistance and workforce support for Kairos Power's Albuquerque expansion, while state officials battled Holtec's proposed HI-STORE spent-fuel facility — a project Holtec abandoned in 2025. The federal picture adds another layer: while Washington has no permanent repository for spent fuel, federal loan guarantees and other support programs have become key levers for advancing new reactor projects.

The common thread is an appetite for nuclear generation capacity accompanied by arguments over who carries the liabilities. New York's pivot could strengthen its grid for decades — potentially even the next century — if the state can follow through on its swing.

By Zerohedge.com

Source: OilPrice.com