Many nuclear reactors in the US have had their service extended past their expected decommissioning points, and the low price of natural gas has helped drive the closure of some of these sites. In order to maintain its current levels of nuclear power generation, the country needs to build and open new plants. Unfortunately, the US hasn't completed a new plant for decades, as a combination of local opposition and large cost overruns left utilities looking to other sources of power.

In recent years, however, the Obama administration has licensed several new nuclear plants, and there are currently five under construction. These plants provide the first chance to learn whether modern reactor designs and improved construction techniques could overcome the problems that brought an end to plant construction in the 1970s.

So far, however, the results have not been promising. Southern Co., the owner of the Vogtle site in Georgia, has seen delays on the construction of two new reactors, delays that have left it embroiled in lawsuits with the two primary contractors for the reactors, Westinghouse Electric and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. Now, the company has announced further delays that will push the project back at least 18 months more. That will result in costs from extended financing that are expected to run over $700 million.

As the AP report notes, a plant using a similar design has also run into delays and enormous cost overruns. Given that competing sources of electricity, including natural gas and renewables, can be deployed far more rapidly and with well-established costs, it appears that the US nuclear industry is likely to suffer an extended decline.