CORE 17th May 2017, Plans to build the £2.8Bn power transmission line connecting NuGen’s delayed Moorside project have been put on hold by National Grid so that it can align its plans with those of developer NuGen which have already been put on-hold.
NuGen has been forced to undertake a ‘strategic review of options’ following the financial meltdown of Moorside’s sole investor Toshiba and the bankruptcy of its subsidiary Westinghouse who was to supply the AP1000 reactors for the project.
Another casualty of NuGen’s faltering progress are the 1200 respondents to its Stage 2 public consultation which finished at the end of July 2016. Today, almost 10 months later, the consultation feedback report promised by NuGen for ‘Autumn 2016’ has still not materialised and neither has NuGen indicated that it will hold the further consultation called for by CORE, local authorities and others to make up for the lack of detailed information provided in the Stage 2 consultation documents.
These failures, in tandem with NuGen’s current Strategic Review of options, designed ‘to provide a more robust, stable and sustainable platform to meet its commitment to deliver the next generation of nuclear power’ has left those respondents not only in a NuGen no-man’s land but also questioning the merit of having already spent time and effort on responding to a project that now appears not only less than robust but also unstable and unsustainable. .. http://corecumbria.co.uk/briefings/nugens-investment-turmoil-sparks-pylon-delay-for-moorside-new-build/
May 19, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
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FirstEnergy nuclear hearings suspended in Ohio House, Cleveland.com By John Funk, The Plain
May 17, 2017 CLEVELAND, Ohio — The chairman of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee has suspended further hearings — and a vote — on a proposed bill allowing FirstEnergy to create a special customer charge to subsidize its nuclear power plant fleet.
“We have heard over 10 hours of testimony on this bill [House Bill 178]. I have given proponents and opponents a chance to make their case,” said William Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican who chairs the committee.
“I am not sensing a keen desire on the part of the House members to vote on this and doubt that we will have more hearings in the near future unless something cataclysmic should happen.”
Cataclysmic events might include a decision by FirstEnergy Solutions to seek bankruptcy protection from its creditors or a decision by the company to immediately close its four nuclear power plants.
FirstEnergy Solutions, the unregulated subsidiary of FirstEnergy, is legally the owner of all of the company’s power plants. FirstEnergy Solutions has been operating with junk bond ratings for some time.
Its parent has tried to distance itself from the company, even creating a separate board of directors, which includes two FirstEnergy employees. But FirstEnergy recently had to guarantee a cash settlement between FirstEnergy Solutions and several railroad companies claiming breach of contract when FirstEnergy Solutions closed coal-fired power plants along Lake Erie and declined further deliveries…….http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2017/05/firstenergy_nuclear_hearings_s.html
May 19, 2017
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New South Korean President Seen Hindering Nuclear Ambitions, Bloomberg by Stephen Stapczynski
May 16, 2017,
“… South Korea’s Moon Jae-in promised during his successful presidential campaign to scrap or suspend new atomic plants.
Now that Moon is president, that anti-nuclear stance is seen as a threat to South Korea’s ambitions to become a bigger exporter of nuclear equipment and technology — a market valued at as much as $740 billion over the next 10 years.
“If the new government withdraws its support for nuclear development in South Korea, this could send a negative signal to foreign countries looking to purchase reactors,” Kerry-Anne Shanks, a Singapore-based analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said by email. “An anti-nuclear stance could challenge Korea’s ambitions to export nuclear technology to other countries.”………
Besides the curbs on new nuclear facilities, Moon also campaigned to cancel any lifetime extensions for existing nuclear plants and to develop a roadmap to eventually rid the nation of atomic power altogether. In nuclear’s place, Moon would place greater emphasis on natural gas and renewables. On Monday, the new president ordered the shutdown for the month of June of 10 coal-fired power plants that have been operating for more than 30 years to cut pollution…..
“Exporting nuclear power plants requires substantial up-front financial support from the vendor and its home government,” said Rod Adams, publisher of Atomic Insights, an industry news website. “There is already some evidence suggesting that the anti-nuclear stance of President Moon Jae-in will make it more difficult for South Korea to export nuclear reactors.”…..
May 17, 2017
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This is no short-term trend. While gas and renewables get cheaper, the price of nuclear power only rises.
Most environmentalists are ardent opponents of the nuclear industry. For many the prime concern is its poor safety record. Others recoil at the inescapable technological link to nuclear weapons production and at nuclear’s many unresolved problems
Industry Meltdown: Is the Era of Nuclear Power Coming to an End?, Yale Environment 360 From Europe to Japan to the U.S., nuclear power is in retreat, as plants are being shuttered, governments move toward renewables, and key companies face financial troubles. Even some of the industry’s biggest boosters believe nuclear is on the way out. BY FRED PEARCE • MAY 15, 2017 Is the nuclear power industry in its death throes? Even some nuclear enthusiasts believe so. With the exception of China, most nations are moving away from nuclear — existing power plants across the United States are being shut early; new reactor designs are falling foul of regulators, and public support remains in free fall. Now come the bankruptcies.
In an astonishing hammer blow to a global industry in late March, Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse — the original developer of the workhorse of the global nuclear industry, the pressurized-water reactor (PWR), and for many decades the world’s largest provider of nuclear technology — filed for bankruptcy after hitting big problems with its latest reactor design, the AP1000.
Largely as a result, its parent company, the Japanese nuclear engineering giant Toshiba, is also in dire financial straits and admits there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern.
Meanwhile, France’s state-owned Électricité de France (EDF), Europe’s biggest builder and operator of nuclear power plants, is deep in debt thanks to its own technical missteps and could become a victim of the economic and energy policies of incoming President Emmanuel Macron.
Those three companies account for more than half of all nuclear power generation worldwide. Their “looming insolvency … has set off a chain reaction of events that threatens the existence of nuclear power in the West,” says Michael Shellenberger, president of the pro-nuclear NGO, Environmental Progress.
“The nuclear industry as we have known it is coming to an end,” says Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute, a California eco-modernist think tank that advocates for nuclear power.
Can this be true?
The U.S. remains the world’s largest producer of nuclear power, with about 100 commercial reactors in operation. New construction virtually shut down after the near-meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. Recently, a stuttering renaissance has been under way. Westinghouse has been building four new reactors at Waynesboro, Georgia, and Jenkinsville, South Carolina.
But those reactors have hit regulatory holdups and technical problems that have pushed cost overruns to an estimated $13 billion. And with Westinghouse in financial meltdown, it is now far from clear that they ever will be finished.
Meanwhile across the country, utilities are shutting existing plants from California to Wisconsin to Vermont, often long before the end of their design life, because they cannot compete with cheap fracked gas or, increasingly, with wind and solar power. Fourteen power reactors have shut since 2012.
This is no short-term trend. While gas and renewables get cheaper, the price of nuclear power only rises. This is in large part to meet safety concerns linked to past reactor disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima and to post-9/11 security worries, and also a result of utilities factoring in the costs of decommissioning their aging reactors. ……..
Shellenberger suggests that an Asian takeover might be a good thing for the West. A beaten and bankrupt industry built on high-cost, bespoke construction could be ripe for annexation by companies that have learned to mass-produce reactors based on old Westinghouse PWR designs and that have replaced nuclear scientists with engineers and experimentation with replication. “What makes nuclear plants safer and cheaper to build and operate is experience, not new designs,” Shellenberger says……..
Most environmentalists are nonetheless ardent opponents of the nuclear industry. For many the prime concern is its poor safety record. Others recoil at the inescapable technological link to nuclear weapons production and at nuclear’s many unresolved problems with waste disposal and decommissioning; they also see nuclear as a rival for investment in renewables, their preferred choice for a low-carbon future. They would happily consign nuclear power to the dustbin of history……..
the industry is in crisis. It looks ever more like a 20th- century industrial dinosaur, unloved by investors, the public, and policymakers alike. The crisis could prove terminal. http://e360.yale.edu/features/industry-meltdown-is-era-of-nuclear-power-coming-to-an-end
May 17, 2017
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Power plant owners limit Toshiba’s Westinghouse liabilities: sources, Reuters, By Tom Hals and Jessica DiNapoli , 15 May 17 WILMINGTON, DEL/NEW YORK The owners of the unfinished Vogtle power plant in Georgia led by Southern Co (
SO.N) agreed to cap Toshiba Corp’s (
6502.T) responsibility for its guarantees on the much-delayed nuclear project, helping ease the Japanese electronics maker’s financial stress, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
The agreement pegs Toshiba’s guarantees for the unfinished Vogtle plant at about $3.6 billion, payable over at least three years, the people said, adding the deal was not yet final.
The deal is also contingent on the owners of the incomplete V.C. Summer power plant in South Carolina, including utility company SCANA Corp (SCG.N), coming to a similar agreement with Toshiba, said the people, who could not be identified because the talks are not public………http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-southern-co-idUKKCN18A120
May 17, 2017
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Energy Live News 15th May 2017, EDF’s renewable arm has confirmed plans to buy a majority stake in an onshore wind power developer. EDF Energies Nouvelles said it has reached a full and final agreement with the shareholders of FUTUREN to buy a 67.2% interest in the company. FUTUREN has operations in France, Germany, Italy and Morocco and currently operates around 745MW of assets in those countries….. http://www.energylivenews.com/2017/05/15/edf-to-buy-majority-stake-in-onshore-wind-developer/
May 17, 2017
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Utility Week 15th May 2017, National Grid hits pause on Moorside connection. Plans shelved for “biggest new power line since electricity network was built”. Plans to build a 102-mile power line connecting the proposed Moorside nuclear plant in Cumbria to the transmission network have been placed on hold, National Grid has revealed.
The news comes after developer NuGen confirmed earlier this month that it was conducting a “strategic review of its options” following reports that its main shareholder, Toshiba, may mothball the Moorside project.
http://utilityweek.co.uk/news/National-Grid-hits-pause-on-Moorside-connection/1302702
May 17, 2017
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Guardian 15th May 2017, Archbishop of Canterbury plays crucial role in BMO Global Asset Management’s decision to dump £20m of shares in firms such as BHP Billiton One of Britain’s biggest managers of ethical funds is to dump £20m of shares in fossil fuel companies in one of the biggest divestments so farbecause of climate change.
Shares in BHP Billiton, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, will be among those sold by BMO Global Asset Management’s range of “responsible” funds, which manage £1.5bn of assets. They were previously known as the “stewardship” funds, the first ethical funds launched in Britain. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, played a crucial role in the divestment, as president of BMO’s responsible investment council. The Church of England has already pulled out of investing in companies that make more than 10% of its revenues from thermal coal or oil from tar sands….. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/15/top-uk-fund-manager-divests-from-fossil-fuels
May 17, 2017
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Southern to Take Over Westinghouse Georgia Nuclear Project https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-13/southern-to-take-over-georgia-reactor-projects-from-westinghouse by
Stephen Cunningham and Tiffany Kary May 14, 2017,
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Westinghouse bankruptcy threw fate of reactors into question
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Southern has appealed to Trump administration for help
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Utility owner Southern Co. has agreed to take the lead on building two nuclear reactors at its Vogtle power plant in Georgia from bankrupt contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. as soon as next month.
The Atlanta-based utility owner said in a statement late Friday that an interim contract with Westinghouse will be extended to June 3 while the companies finalize and gain approval for a new service agreement. Just last week, Southern Chief Executive Officer Thomas Fanning said Toshiba Corp.’s Westinghouse unit had “given every indication” it wanted out of the pact to build reactors but was refraining from a decision under the contract that was due to expire Friday.
- Westinghouse’s bankruptcy in March threw into question the fate of four U.S. nuclear reactors — the two at Southern’s Vogtle plant and another two being built at Scana Corp.’s V.C. Summer station in South Carolina. The projects were the first to gain U.S. approval for construction in more than 30 years and were once seen as ushering in a new wave of nuclear generation in the country. Fanning has said his company could take over the work at Vogtle if Toshiba provides $3.7 billion to finish it as promised. The deal is said to also depend in part on Scana agreeing to follow suit, so the two companies will be able to share resources.
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The companies reached an agreement in principle that “allows for the transition of project management from Westinghouse” to Southern once their current engineering and construction contract is rejected in Westinghouse’s bankruptcy case, Southern said in its
statement. “During this time, work will continue at the site and an orderly transition of project management will begin.”
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Westinghouse has meanwhile already laid out plans to ditch the money-losing business of building reactors and instead focus on servicing and decommissioning work. It set up agreements with both Southern and Scana to give them more time to decide whether they wanted to continue construction.
In March, less than 24 hours after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy, Southern’s Fanning said in a Bloomberg Television interview that he flewto Tokyo just to “look the CEO of Toshiba in the eye” and remind him that his company had a “moral commitment” to getting the Vogtle project done. Both Fanning and Georgia regulators have appealed to the Trump administration for help in finishing the project.
- In April, Scana and Westinghouse agreed to extend a review of the V.C. Summer nuclear project until June 26.
In Westinghouse’s bankruptcy, the most significant debts are held by Apollo Global Management LLC, which financed an $800 million operating loan, and parent Toshiba. The Chapter 11 case has moved slowly, with Westinghouse recently asking for a two-week delay until May 26 to file a full schedule of its assets and debts.
May 15, 2017
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Wind Is The New Power In America’s Heartland, Forbes, Chris Brown, 14 May 17, U.S. wind energy recently achieved a major milestone, which underscores a new reality that is generating power and jobs across America’s heartland. In February, low-cost clean electricity from wind turbines on the Great Plains supplied more than half (
52.1%) of all power on the grid serving Americans in a 14-state swath of the central U.S., stretching from Texas to Montana.
This was the first time a North American grid operator supplied a majority of its electricity from wind, powering millions of households. “Now we have the ability to reliably manage greater than 50%,” said Bruce Rew, vice president of operations, Southwest Power Pool (SPP). “It’s not even our ceiling.”
SPP understands the power of wind. They aren’t alone.
The CEO of Great River Energy Inc., which supplies 28 electric co-ops in Minnesota, recently said that “wind is quickly becoming the new base load, and to be viable going forward, all other sources must be flexible enough to be supplemental to the wind.”
ndeed, in 2016 wind topped hydroelectric as the #1 U.S. renewable energy in total capacity, enough to power 24 million homes. Wind capped a second straight year installing more than 8,000 megawatts and exceeded both natural gas and solar in new U.S. utility-scale capacity for 2015-2016 combined, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reported.
Wind is winning in energy markets because of its proven reliability and market-beating cost, which fell 66% since 2009. It’s now the cheapest source of new electric-generating capacity across much of the nation, attracting utilities such as Xcel Energy and MidAmerican Energy, and corporate buyers including Amazon, Google, Home Depot and GM.
Wind isn’t just becoming a major contributor to U.S. power – it’s a rapidly expanding base for U.S. jobs. Every year, the wind industry as a whole now supports more than 30 U.S. jobs for every new wind turbine, according to analysis of new economic impact data by Navigant Consulting. A modern wind turbine takes 18 full-time U.S. jobs to develop, manufacture, transport and construct, and creates 44 years of full-time employment, including long-term operations and maintenance, over its lifetime.
Nationwide, wind powers 102,500 jobs, driving economic development in the rural Midwest, Rust Belt and all 50 states. By 2020, projected wind-related jobs will rise to a quarter million, including jobs in communities surrounding wind farms and factories. Today, U.S. wind counts more than 1,000 utility-scale projects, 52,000 wind turbines and 500 factories.
That’s good news for America’s heartland, where wind power has arrived in a big way. Wind has bipartisan backing from large majorities because it’s delivering for Americans – in their wallets, workplace and homes:……https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/05/10/wind-is-the-new-power-in-americas-heartland/#29e27e2c31a5
May 15, 2017
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Nuclear Generation Expected to Decline with Reactor Retirements http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2017/05/nuclear-generation-expected-to-decline-with-reactor-retirements.html
May 12, 2017 Far more nuclear generation capacity is expected to be retired rather than added through 2050, a study by the Energy Information Administration indicated.
Though 9.1 GW of new capacity is projected to be added, 29.9 GW is expected to be retired. The reactors already announced for closure include Palisades in 2018, Pilgrim Unit 1 in 2019, Oyster Creek Unit 1 in 2020, Indian Point Units 2 and 3 around 2020 and Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 in 2025 and 2026.
Though Quad Cities Units 1 and 2 and Clinton Unit 1 were set for retirement, financial incentives passed by the state of Illinois caused the operators of those plants to keep them open.
EIA assumes 25 percent of nuclear capacity now operating without announced retirement plans will be removed from service by 2050.
The four new reactors under construction at V.C. Summer and Vogtle are included in the assessment, EIA said their future process is uncertain due to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric.
New nuclear power plants are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 40 years, though 90 percent of currently operating nuclear plants are either operating under or have applied for 20-year license renewals. Nearly all nuclear plants now in use began operation between 1970 and 1990.
EIA noted the capital investment needed to keep plants operating beyond 60 years is currently unknown and could vary significantly across the nuclear power fleet.
May 13, 2017
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Is Rosatom selling debt and dependence to its overseas customers? http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2017-05-is-rosatom-selling-debt-and-dependence-to-its-overseas-customers When a court in South Africa torpedoed a $76 billion deal to build 10 nuclear reactors with Russia’s Rosatom because the arrangement reeked of corruption, it seemed like the project was kaput. May 10, 2017 by Charles Digges, charles@bellona.no, When a court in South Africa torpedoed a $76 billion deal to build 10 nuclear reactors with Russia’s Rosatom because the arrangement reeked of corruption, it seemed like the project was kaput.
At issue to the court was the fact that Rosatom was given the lucrative contract behind closed doors without any competing tenders, and that the company had been granted “special favors.” South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, even sacked his finance minister for opposing the deal.
The high court demanded that a contract of such breathtaking magnitude – representing a quarter of South Africa’s gross domestic product and $24 billion more than its state utility, Eskom, has in the bank – be approved by parliament.
Hanging over the deal, and numerous others like it, is the degree to which Rosatom seems to be pursing not just energy dominance in a world trying to wean itself coal, but political influence as well by putting its customers in long-term hock to Moscow.
The South Africa deal may yet come off, but it’s also surprising that it got so far in the first place.
It began as one of Rosatom’s handshake “memorandums of understanding” that the company is using to blanket the nuclear construction market and squeeze out competition. The company says it has 27 of these MOUs and other arrangements, amounting to $135 billion in incoming business, a claim that invites skepticism.
Many of the counties Rosatom counts among that number – like Jordan, Algeria, Nigeria and Bolivia – won’t be ready for nuclear for decades. Others where Rosatom builds are already underway – like India’ Kudankulam, Iran’s Bushehr, China’s Tianwan and Belarus’s Ostrovets – are already familiar with Rosatom’s typical cost overruns and delays.
Rosatom’s approach to marketing its VVER-1000 and VVER-1200 reactors is unique because it offers to finance, build and operate its plants. These generous terms come thanks to the enormous state subsidies it receives, and which it can then funnel into loans that boost its profits on paper. With government subsides set to decrease or dry up in 2020, however, Rosatom seems desperate to announce ever more MOUs.
While the terms of the financing for the South Africa deal never got spelled out, it’s clear from Rosatom deals in other countries that the terms are often steep.
To build Hungary’s controversial Paks-2 plant, Rosatom gave Budapest an $11 billion loan spread out over 30 years. Hungary has to start paying that back even if the plant is not completed on time. The interest Moscow could collect from Hungary is unclear, but a similar 30-year, $11.4 billion agreement with Bangladesh inked last year could result in $8 billion in interest. A $25 billion deal Rosatom signed with Egypt could, over 35-year term of the loan, swell to $71 billion.
And that’s if everyone behaves. The plant Rosatom is building in Turkey offers an indication of what happens when they don’t. To build Hungary’s controversial Paks-2 plant, Rosatom gave Budapest an $11 billion loan spread out over 30 years. Hungary has to start paying that back even if the plant is not completed on time. The interest Moscow could collect from Hungary is unclear, but a similar 30-year, $11.4 billion agreement with Bangladesh inked last year could result in $8 billion in interest. A $25 billion deal Rosatom signed with Egypt could, over 35-year term of the loan, swell to $71 billion.
And that’s if everyone behaves. The plant Rosatom is building in Turkey offers an indication of what happens when they don’t.
May 12, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
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Nuclear subsidies distort markets, hurt business, say FirstEnergy opponents http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2017/05/nuclear_subsidies_distort_mark.html By John Funk, The Plain Dealer on May 10, 2017 CLEVELAND, Ohio — Business and consumer groups joined forces Tuesday to oppose FirstEnergy’s plan to change Ohio law to create new subsidies for the power company’s nuclear power plants.
On the opposite side, supporting FirstEnergy, were unions, a contractor’s group, and the Perry local school district, which benefits from taxes from the Perry nuclear power plant.
The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, the Lordstown Energy Center, Dynegy, now the state’s largest owner of coal-fired power plants, the American Petroleum Institute and the Electric Power Supply Association were among more than a dozen groups testifying against enabling legislation before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee.
“House Bill 178 or the Zero Emission Nuclear credit bill would provide an enormous subsidy to one nuclear operator for units that they contend are no longer economic to operate,” said Robert Flexon, CEO of Houston-based Dynegy Inc.
“Our economy will not grow and prosper by artificially keeping alive business that can no longer compete in the marketplace through expensive subsidies,” he told lawmakers. “That has been the case throughout American history. Were that not so, we’d still have buggy whip and icebox manufacturers and teletype and elevators operators.”
Later in an interview, Flexon said the zero emissions argument, meaning the plants deserve higher rates because they don’t produce carbon dioxide, is a “red herring.”
“The nuclear plants are deeply out of the money. You [the state] would be throwing billions of dollars down a nuclear waste hole. These plants can’t live without subsidies. Why do you want to put more bills on your citizens? It’s beyond me.”
Flexon was joined by William Siderewicz, president of Boston-based Clean Energy Future, which is building four gas turbine power plants at two northern Ohio locations, including Lordstown.
You would be throwing billions of dollars down a nuclear waste hole. These plants can’t live without subsidies.”
Calling for the House to “summarily reject” any form of the legislation, Siderewicz charged that FirstEnergy’s objective was not to save Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants, but to prepare for selling the plants or closing them and paying for the decommissioning.
Former Republican lawmaker Jeff Jadobson, now a lobbyist, appeared before the committee on behalf of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, which oppose the bill.
He said Ohio consumers are stuck with the 18th highest electric rate in the nation despite being “awash in shale oil and natural gas that have given us historically low gas prices” — which is leading to a building boom in new gas plants.
“But there is a problem that is preventing Ohio families and businesses from realizing the full benefits of lower prices in the market,” he said. “That problem is the continuing requests by Oho electric utilities — now years since the 1999 deregulation law’s transition period ended — for consumers to pay subsidies above the market price of electricity.”
He said FirstEnergy received $9.8 billion in subsidies between 2001 and 2010 to help it transition from the old regulated markets to competitive deregulated markets. And as of Jan. 1, the company has been permitted to collect an additional $204 million a year for up to five years in additional subsidies.
“FirstEnergy is back. Respectively, you should stop this cycle of subsidies and give consumers more of the benefit of competition intended under the 1999 law,” he told the lawmakers.
Earlier in the day, Chris Zeigler, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute’s Ohio division, and Erica Bowman, API chief economist, told reporters that FirstEnergy’s proposed subsidies could stall the development of the 10 or more gas turbine power plants proposed or already being built in Ohio. And in turn, that could stall further development of Ohio’s rich shale gas deposits.
Bowman also testified, concluding that API is strongly opposed to House Bill 178. It would skew markets by propping up uncompetitive nuclear generation, increase costs for ratepayers and job-creating industries, and discourage investment in natural gas production and gas-fired power plants. ”
Other opponents included the Ohio Environmental Council, AARP Ohio, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, Ohio Citizen Action the Environmental Defense Fund and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
FirstEnergy initially asked that lawmakers vote on the bill by June 30, but at this point that is not expected to happen.
All of the testimony is posted on the committee’s website.
May 12, 2017
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The utilities must make a decision by June 26 whether to build one or both of the reactors or scrap the plan entirely. Santee Cooper’s board of directors met in a private session Wednesday to get legal advice on the project but took no action…….
The utilities also are counting on an extension of federal tax credits for new nuclear projects to keep V.C. Summer alive. Those credits expire at the end of 2020, and it’s not certain the two reactors — which are only about one-third complete, according to a filing with the S.C. Public Service Commission — will be online by then. An effort to extend the tax credit deadline has gotten little traction in Congress.
May 12, 2017
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