nuclear-news

Rating agency casts gloom on nuclear industry’s future in America

“In our opinion, the current market conditions combined with nuclear projects’ long planning and construction timelines will prevent the construction of additional new units until at least the end of this decade,” the report said.

US nuclear revival unlikely absent more regulatory support: S&P, Washington (Platts)–15Feb2012  The likelihood of a US “nuclear renaissance” this decade is faint and changes in state regulatory treatment of nuclear projects is needed before utilities outside Georgia and South Carolina build new reactors, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said Wednesday.

A sluggish economy has depressed demand and low natural gas prices have allowed utilities to postpone or cancel plans for new nuclear units in favor of new gas-fired generation, S&P analyst Dimitri Nikas wrote in a report.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval last week of licenses
for Georgia Power’s new two-unit Vogtle nuclear plant expansion is “a
milestone,” and South Carolina Electric & Gas plans a two-unit
expansion of its Summer station when it receives NRC permission, S&P
said. But these actions alone will not lead in the short term to
additional orders, S&P said.
“In our opinion, the current market conditions combined with nuclear
projects’ long planning and construction timelines will prevent the
construction of additional new units until at least the end of this
decade,” the report said.

Among the issues that must be resolved before nuclear plant
construction can take off is a government policy for handling spent
nuclear fuel, S&P said. A permanent disposal site for such spent fuel
“would mitigate a significant obstacle to new nuclear construction,”
S&P said.

Further, pre-approval of a nuclear project’s budget and schedule,
recovery of financing costs during construction and provisions for
recovery of investment if the project is abandoned are all needed at
the state level before additional plants will be ordered, S&P said.
Only Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina have such provisions and in
Florida they are not being utilized fully, S&P said. …
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/6963603

February 16, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA