nuclear-news

GREEN>BLORGE by Susan Wilson 10 Nov 09 “……….Will new nuclear reactors and subsequent nuclear energy really be economical for the people who will be using and paying for it?…the immediate issue is the creation of new jobs here at home. Michael Eckhart of ACORE related the following conversation he had with friends in the nuclear energy industry:

Then, I had a conversation recently with some friends in the nuclear power business and asked where the nuclear power plants would come from if we DID begin to build them. The answer was amazing. The super-pure stainless steel will come from Germany, and it would be fabricated into steam-supply-systems in China, and the overall contractor would probably be Mitsubishi from Japan, and the construction contract would probably go to a firm in Korea that would send workers to the U.S. Well, I said, what’s in it for the U.S.? They laughingly said: “the spent fuel.”

The answer to the question, will more jobs quickly be created would be a resounding NO……..

will new nuclear power plants really be better economically for consumers?  In an article by Bill Moore in EV World, he points out that California Energy Commission issued a 2009 report called Comparative Costs of California Central Station Electricity Generation Technologies.  In that report, nuclear energy was the only power source expected to continue rising in cost as the following graph from the Commission shows:
As Der Spiegel in the previously mentioned article pointed out,

“A number of US companies have looked with trepidation at the situation in Finland and the magnitude of investment there,” says American economist Paul Joskow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2003, the US Congressional Budget Office assessed the risk that loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power plants could come due at “more than 50 percent.” In 2007, six major investment banks wrote to the US Department of Energy that money for new construction could only be raised if the government guaranteed these loans “at 100 percent, and without conditions.”

The continually rising costs of construction, along with the long lead time and possibility that the nuclear plant may never go on line or will have problems that will need to be corrected make nuclear power a very expensive source of energy for consumers.  Although the owners of the plants may eventually see profits, consumers will see nothing but rising energy costs for decades to come…..The costs to build are cost prohibitive and the cost to consumers outrageous.http://green.blorge.com/2009/11/the-economic-downside-to-nuclear-energy/

The answer to the question is NO.