nuclear-news

Nuclear power’s ever rising costs

Nuclear Power, Once Cheap, Squeezed by Mounting Costs Reactors were supposed to provide near-limitless electricity at low prices. But as they’ve aged, their costs have climbed. US News,  By Alan Neuhauser March 30, 2016  “……..Fuel costs have climbed, but age is also a chief culprit: The plants are an average 36 years old, requiring expensive and more frequent repairs.

“It gets harder to keep them running at the same price, even as competitors get cheaper and the market gets thinner,” says Peter Bradford, a commissioner with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1977-1982 and a professor at Vermont Law School.

Electricity markets – flooded not only by cheap gas but also new solar and wind – paid as little as 2 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity last year. Nuclear plants at times needed a full cent more – an additional 50 percent – to break even…..

the pressure on nuclear plants to cut costs is enormous, industry insiders say, even perhaps at the expense of safety. More than 75 percent of the nation’s nuclear plants have reported a radioactive leak in their lifetimes, for example, most recently outside New York City and Miami in February. They’ve also suffered explosions, fires and corrosion, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has repeatedly weakened its rules to allow plants to skirt potentially costly safety standards.

“They are expending as little amount of money on the plant as possible,” says Paul Blanch, a longtime engineer and industry worker turned watchdog.

At least four plants in the past four years have gone offline or been slated to be decommissioned, all casualties of rising costs and cheap competitors……http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-30/nuclear-power-once-cheap-squeezed-by-mounting-costs

April 1, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general