Morning Check

“The United States has not built a new nuclear reactor in fifty years.”

Civic Ledger

The absolute does not survive the record. Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee began commercial operation in 2016. Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia followed in 2023 and 2024 — the first newly built U.S. reactors in a generation, which is not the same thing as none in fifty years. The fleet is old. New construction has been rare and expensive. Rarity is not absence.