nuclear-news

High costs and construction delays cast gloom over nuclear industry

in 2016, the industry faces stiffer competition from alternative energy sources. In 1977, for instance, solar panels cost $76.67 per watt, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. That figure had decreased to 73 cents by 2012 – less than 1 percent of the original per-watt cost. And aside from Three Mile Island, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine and the tsunami-induced accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011 have damaged the industry’s image…….

Though the U.S. now operates 99 reactors, more than any other country by a wide margin (France is second with 58), it once had as many as 112. The number of operational reactors in the country has either declined or remained constant in every year since 1993, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show.

Dave Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Nuclear Safety Project, points to an underlying challenge for power companies beyond the initial cost of building a nuclear plant: attempted repairs that fail and cost billions to fix. When workers inadvertently cracked the wall of the Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida in 2009 while trying to replace the plant’s steam generators, the plant shut down because it would have cost upward of $1 billion to repair the damages……..

Power companies hoping to upgrade their plants instead of building new ones face financial challenges. For instance, a four-month project at the Monticello Nuclear Plant in Minnesota to upgrade capacity and replace old equipment cost nearly twice its initial estimate. The upgrades cost a fraction of the price of building a new plant, but still blew past initial cost calculations……..

The NRC, which approves the design of reactors before granting them licenses to operate, is expected to receive applications for “design certifications” for small reactors during the next several years, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. But Small Modular Reactors may not operate in the U.S. until 2025, the Department of Energy says. And they are not guaranteed to work.

“The biggest hurdle that SMRs face is that the reactors that are being built today in the United States – the five reactors that are in various stages of construction – are basically the next evolutionary step to the reactors we’re already operating,” Lochbaum says. “And the SMRs are pretty much different from that. They’re more revolutionary in their design, and that’s going to cause a problem for plant owners. It’s difficult to invest a lot of money in a technology that may have some unforeseen problems.”

The nuclear industry’s clock continues to tick because plants have finite lifespans. Reactors are typically designed to last around 40 years. Simple math illustrates a sobering reality for power companies: We will need to see a slew of costly reactor upgrades for the country’s aging plants to remain operable. http://www.usnews.com/news/special-reports/the-manhattan-project/articles/2016-03-03/another-chance-for-nuclear-power

March 4, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA