nuclear-news

 (This is an expanded version of something I had previously posted.)

When the idea of expanding the South Texas Nuclear Project (I refuse to acknowledge the PR-driven name change that dropped the word Nuclear) was first proposed, Austin had a chance to buy into the new units, and declined. The biggest reasons for not entering the project were cost, safety and the fact that we don’t know what they’re going to do with the reactors’ waste. Given that none of those factors have changed, why then is the City Council considering entering into an agreement with the plant’s owners, NRG, to buy a share of the electricity from the new reactors?

Nuclear reactors are the most complex and expensive way known to humanity to boil water. If they made economic sense, people with money would be falling over themselves to invest capital for their construction. Everyone from bond rating agencies…