New life at old plants: Exploring solar power development at former nuclear power plant sites in the United States

When a nuclear power plant closes, its host community often faces a number of negative economic impacts, such as the loss of skilled jobs and a major source of tax revenue. Even after decommissioning is completed, many former plant sites remain undeveloped, further inhibiting economic recovery. In this paper, we use data from seven decommissioned and decommissioning plants as well as estimates from industry professionals to calculate an approximate opportunity cost for each host community. This cost represents how much potential revenue has been lost while the plant site has remained undeveloped as compared to an alternate scenario in which it has been redeveloped into a solar power plant. Additionally, this paper discusses the presence of spent nuclear fuel and the challenges this presents for the redevelopment of former nuclear plant sites. This paper demonstrates the importance of efficient decommissioning and post-decommissioning redevelopment and examines solar power generation as one potential redevelopment pathway.