nuclear-news

Head of Nebraska utility wants closing of uneconomic nuclear power station

Nebraska Utility Head Recommends Closing Nuclear Power Plant. abc news, By JOSH FUNK, ASSOCIATED PRESS OMAHA, Neb. — May 12, 2016 The head of a Nebraska utility recommended shutting down the nation’s smallest nuclear power plant by the end of the year, saying Thursday that it doesn’t make economic sense to keep it open.

Tim Burke, the president and CEO of the Omaha Public Power District, told the utility’s board that Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station isn’t financially sustainable……

Smaller nuclear plants, like Fort Calhoun, have the most difficult time competing on the price of power, especially if they have had serious safety problems, said Mark Cooper, who is a senior fellow for economic analysis with the Institute for Energy and the Environment atVermont Law School.

“The older, smaller reactors are really uneconomic,” Cooper said.

Adding to Fort Calhoun’s problems is a series of setbacks it has had in recent years.

The utility spent more than $140 million on repairs after flooding and a small fire damaged the plant in 2011. Fort Calhoun’s closure in April 2011 began with routine refueling maintenance, but massive flooding along the Missouri River that year and several safety and security violations forced it to remain closed.

Among the violations cited by regulators was the failure of a key electrical part during a 2010 test, a small electrical fire in June 2011, several security issues and deficiencies in flood planning that were discovered a year before the river spilled its banks.

It resumed operations in December 2013 after the utility hired Chicago-based Exelon, the largest U.S. operator of nuclear power plants, to run Fort Calhoun.http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nebraska-utility-head-recommends-closing-nuclear-power-plant-39071354

May 13, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general