nuclear-news

Still no new nuclear reactors in USA, while costs balloon

banks are now declaring that they consider such projects too risky to finance without large public subsidies.

Waiting for the Nuclear Renaissance Energy Wise  Bill Sweet   January 04, 2010 The spotlight is on San Antonio, where a consortium led by Toshiba is set to build two new advanced boiling water reactors. Though the project is one of the most advanced in the United States in terms of approvals and planning, the Texas city is holding off on a $400 million bond issuance to support it because of sharply higher projected costs, and the city-owned utility CPS Energy may back out.

Since 2007, the estimated construction bill has ballooned from $8.6 billion to $12.1 billion…………no matter how you slice and dice recent developments, this is not the way things were supposed to be………..even after all that work, ground has yet to broken for construction of any new reactor in the United States, and banks are now declaring that they consider such projects too risky to finance without large public subsidies. Meanwhile, the two European reactors under construction–also based on a precertified evolutionary design–have been dogged by delays, new safety concerns, and escalating costs……….

many organizations that have been steadfastly opposed to nuclear—Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Physicians for Social Responsibility—remain firmly opposed. At the Copenhagen climate conference last month, these forces were much in evidence, along with an ad hoc umbrella organization, Don’t Nuke the Climate……………..

even if all controversy were to evaporate, all the regulatory lights turned green, and costs came down, representatives of the U.S. industry admit that they now are in a position to initiate no more than two or three reactor construction projects per year. At that rate, they might be only replacing the aging reactors being decommissioned, without offering an alternative to current coal generation.

January 5, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes