17 utilities defying costs and risking the shareholders money for what result???? Answer:: the Most Expensive Way in world to boil water.  Utilities have almost gone bankrupt before building nuclear and the quickest way to reinvent the wheel is to forget past history as costs will crush the utilities applying for these 26 new nuclear units.   And all the while, the distributed power model of building small, concise incremental units closer to the demand is ignored in the USA.   Thank god the rest of the world does NOT think as stupid as the USA utility crowd.  Build it “”TEXAS BIG”"‘ and they will come………..sorry, these utilities are cruising towards financial armegedden as they ignore past history of risking the entire utility shareholders base over the title of building the first nuclear unit in 30 years……….there is a reason NOBDOY has built a nuke unit in 30 years, its called “”RETURN ON INVESTMENT”"”. 

After a decadeslong winter of discontent, a confluence of favorable events during the last 10 years has provided a spark to America’s nuclear industry.

With no major U.S. accidents during that period, public opinion has slowly swung in favor of splitting atoms to meet the country’s voracious power demands. The cost of natural gas — a competitor to nuclear — spiked to $13 per thousand cubic feet last year, although it has since fallen. And in a world worried about carbon dioxide, nuclear energy stands out, because it produces virtually no greenhouse gases.

Finally, during a Bush administration friendly to nuclear power, the federal government has begun providing generous loan guarantees for new reactor construction.

Because of these trends, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the last two years has received 17 applications for 26 new nuclear reactors, most of them at existing facilities. And during this year something will likely happen that hasn’t in three decades: A U.S. power provider is expected to receive a license to begin clearing land for a new reactor.

“There’s clearly momentum building in favor of nuclear energy,” said Sean McDeavitt, a Texas A&M University assistant professor of nuclear engineering.

Among the first to apply for a license was NRG Texas, which seeks to expand its existing South Texas Project near Bay City. The two proposed units, which the company expects would begin operations by 2016, would produce an additional 2,660 megawatts, enough electricity to supply 2.1 million homes.