nuclear-news

Nuclear Plant Vogtle – escalating costs, delays, don’t augur well for nuclear industry

Most of the [USA’s nuclear power] projects have been delayed or scrapped due to the lower than expected demand for electricity, the inability to secure financing or because the utility decided a cheaper alternative, such as natural gas, was easier.

Delays, cost increases at nation’s new nuclear projects, By Kristi Swartz The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 13 July 12, Despite promises from the nuclear industry to regulators and consumers that they learned from mistakes of the past, the nation’s first two nuclear reactor projects built from scratch in 30 years are headed toward hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns and months, if not years, of delays.

Georgia Power customers currently are paying the financing costs of Plant Vogtle’s twin reactors. The impact of the early delays and budget increases at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle and South Carolina Electric & Gas’s Plant Summer will have on future nuclear projects is unclear.

Utilities’ officials say the Georgia and South Carolina projects face
extra public and private scrutiny because they are the first approved
and their design will serve as prototypes for future plants.

The challenges include more than $800 million in overruns and a
dispute over who should pay for them. The disputes are between the
consortium of utility companies building Plant Vogtle and the
project’s main design and construction contractors, Westinghouse and
The Shaw Group. Georgia Power, as the lead in the consortium building
the plant, is responsible for $400 million of that amount, the
contractors say. In South Carolina, SCE&G has asked to recoup from its
customers $283 million, which include a $138 million settlement with
Shaw and Westinghouse.

Customers could end up paying for any cost overruns at Vogtle if the
charges are ultimately approved by Georgia’s Public Service
Commission……
Nearly two dozen utilities at one point had told federal regulators
they intended to build one or more nuclear reactors in the near
future. Now, that amount has shrunk to fewer than a dozen. Most of the projects have been delayed or scrapped due to the lower than expected demand for electricity, the inability to secure financing or because the utility decided a cheaper alternative, such as natural gas, was
easier…… http://www.ajc.com/business/delays-cost-increases-at-1477334.html

July 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA