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Environmental Capital – WSJ.com : Financial Fallout: Market Tumbles Shake Nuclear Clean-Up Funds

October 10, 2008, Financial Fallout: Market Tumbles Shake Nuclear Clean-Up Funds
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL  by Keith Johnson 10 Oct 08  The Wall Street meltdown is making it tougher to build new nuclear power plants, but it’s doing more than that. It could also make it tougher to tear down the existing ones.
The stock market’s tumble is cracking the piggy bank designed to safely mothball Vermont’s Yankee nuclear power plant when the plant is evenutally shut down, notes the Boston Globe. Since the spring, the so-called “decommissioning fund” for the Entergy plant, which will pay to dismantle and safely entomb nuclear reactors when they are shut down, has lost about $40 million, or 10% of its value……………………..ll nuclear plants are required to have a fund set aside to pay for their eventual clean-up. Since nuclear plants have such a long operating life, and clean-up takes even longer, most rely on long-term investments to meet funding requirements. How much does decomissioning cost? No one really knows. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission figures it should cost between $280 million and $612 million per reactor—or a maximum pricetag of about $63 billion for America’s 104 nuclear reactors. Then again, Britain estimates the total clean-up bill for its 19 nuclear reactors at $165 billion,………………ll nuclear plants are required to have a fund set aside to pay for their eventual clean-up. Since nuclear plants have such a long operating life, and clean-up takes even longer, most rely on long-term investments to meet funding requirements. How much does decomissioning cost? No one really knows. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission figures it should cost between $280 million and $612 million per reactor—or a maximum pricetag of about $63 billion for America’s 104 nuclear reactors. Then again, Britain estimates the total clean-up bill for its 19 nuclear reactors at $165 billion,

Environmental Capital – WSJ.com : Financial Fallout: Market Tumbles Shake Nuclear Clean-Up Funds

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October 11, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs