Dive Brief:

• Texas power generator Luminant is suspending efforts to build two 1,700-megawatt nuclear reactors at its Commanche Peak plant in North Texas, the company said Friday. Luminant spokesman Brad Watson cited "the current economic reality of low Texas power prices driven in large part by the boom in natural gas."
• Luminant said in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the company "concluded that it does not make sense to continue to expend Luminant or NRC resources" on the license application.
• The company also cited the decision by reactor vendor Mitsubishi to slow down its efforts to license its U.S. Advanced Pressurized Water Reactors and concentrate instead on helping to restart reactors in Japan that have been idle since the Fukushima accident in 2011. 

Dive Insight: 

Luminant's news is the latest blow to the nuclear power industry's aspirations for a renaissance. Other nuclear plant projects in deregulated electricity markets that have been suspended or stalled over the past two years include NRC Energy's South Texas Project expansion, UniStar Nuclear's Calvert Cliffs-3 and Exelon's Victoria County, Texas project. Earlier this year, Duke Energy suspended plans to build new reactors in North Carolina and Florida.