nuclear-news

New nuclear power plants – Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina – just gobbling up money!

The plants burning natural gas are far cheaper to build than nuclear power plants…..….

Building costs rise at US nuclear sites Bloomberg, By Ray Henry on July 10, 2012 ATLANTA (AP) — America’s first new nuclear plants in more than a decade are costing billions more to build and sometimes taking longer to deliver than planned, problems that could chill the industry’s hopes for a jumpstart to the nation’s new nuclear age.

Licensing delay charges, soaring construction expenses and installation glitches as mundane as misshapen metal bars have driven up the costs of three plants in Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, from hundreds of millions to as much as $2 billion, according to an Associated Press analysis of public records and regulatory filings.

Those problems, along with jangled nerves from last year’s meltdown in Japan and the lure of cheap natural gas, could discourage utilities from sinking cash into new reactors, experts said. The building slowdown would be another blow to the so-called nuclear renaissance, a drive over the past decade to build 30 new reactors to meet the country’s growing power needs. Industry watchers now say that only a handful will be built this decade.
“People are looking at these things very carefully,” said Richard
Lester, head of the department of nuclear science and engineering at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Inexpensive gas alone, he
said, “is casting a pretty long shadow over the prospects” for
construction of new nuclear plants.

The AP’s review of pending projects found:

— Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia, initially estimated to cost $14
billion, has run into over $800 million in extra charges related to
licensing delays. A state monitor has said bluntly that co-owner
Southern Co. can’t stick to its budget. The plant, whose first reactor
was supposed to be operational by April 2016, is now delayed seven
months.

— The long-mothballed Watts Bar power plant in eastern Tennessee,
initially budgeted at $2.5 billion, will cost up to $2 billion more ,
the Tennessee Valley Authority concluded this spring. The utility said
its initial budget underestimated how much work was needed to finish
the plant and wasted money by not completing more design work before
starting construction. The project had been targeted to finish in
2012, but has been postponed until 2015.

— Plant Summer in South Carolina, expected to cost around $10.5
billion, has seen costs jump by $670 million; but with lower interest
rates and cheaper-than-expected labor; the owners assert the project
is still on or under budget. A deadline to put the first new reactor
online has been delayed from 2016 to 2017; the second reactor is now
eight months ahead of schedule, targeted for early 2018…..
the economy is also working against progress on new construction. The
next company in line to build, Progress Energy, has pushed back
construction plans for two reactors in Florida because of the economy,
low demand and extremely cheap natural gas. It expects its first new
reactor to be finished in 2024.

The plants burning natural gas are far cheaper to build than nuclear power plants………
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-07-10/ap-impact-building-costs-rise-at-us-nuclear-sites

July 11, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Reference, USA