Siting Nuclear Power Plants in the Western United States
Presentation Time: Wed, 05/04/2022 - 13:00
Keywords: siting power plants, nuclear, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, Western United States
As the United States shifts to a greener mindset, going away from fossil fuel power has been an increasingly popular choice to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. One method that provides more power and efficiency on a larger scale is nuclear. As technology has evolved and improved nuclear power, these power plants can be built smaller and are more efficient than the nuclear power plants built 20-40 years ago. In this study, GIS analyses were used to find suitable areas in the Western U.S. for siting a new nuclear power plant. This will produce a map including rankings of most suitable, suitable, and not suitable sites. The most suitable areas will contain no geological hazards, population density of less than 500 persons per square mile, and within a mile of perennial bodies of water. The ranking of suitable will include areas that contain everything in the most suitable ranking except no bodies of water. The not suitable areas contain geohazards, a population density of more than 500 person per square mile and have no water. The resulting percentages are the most suitable areas account for 0.04% of the study area, the suitable areas account for 27.12% of the study area, and the not suitable areas make up 72.84% of the study area.
