Susana SchwartzNuclear: seeing it first hand
Today, I’m visiting the southeast shore of Lake Ontario to see New York’s Oswego nuclear facility. Here, Constellation Energy wants to add a newer small modular reactor in the same footprint as its existing three nuclear reactors in Oswego County, NY (two at Nine Mile Point Clean Energy Center and one at the James A. FitzPatrick Clean Energy Center). Just “down the road,” so to speak, is Micron Technology’s budding $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility, which will have 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space on a1,400-acre mega-site in Clay, NY. The megafab will require a staggering 1.85 gigawatts (GW) of continuous, around-the-clock power.
Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez believes nuclear will be the “bedrock” of the early data economy, and here, Oswego residents apparently “love their nuclear plants…and want more.” They overwhelmingly support expanding their nuclear capacity because the existing plants serve as the primary economic engine for the entire county, with the atomic symbol is prominently featured on the Oswego County Seal.
For Constellation, it will be vastly cheaper and faster to build nuclear where nuclear already exists. As of now, the existing reactors generate roughly 20 million megawatt-hours (MWh) or 20,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean, carbon-free electricity each year.
And, because Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling for 4 GWs of zero-emission advanced nuclear power in the state, the project could also be politically easier, even amid the one-year statewide moratorium imposed July 14, 2026.
As I prepare to send this newsletter, my son is setting up trolling rods to catch Coho Salmon, with the plumes of water vapor from nine Mile creating an impressive anthropogenic cloud above Lake Ontario. It’s a case study of how trust can be established when nuclear power is operated successfully over decades.
This plant is often cited by energy analysts, local officials, and industry advocates as a prime example of how a relationship can be built between a community and its nuclear facilities.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
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