DOE Issues Nuclear Guarantee
It promises to back loans for the first new nuclear reactors in decades.
Kevin Bullis 02/16/2010
- 14 Comments
The government has been promising to guarantee loans for nuclear power plants for years--as a way of bringing down the cost of financing these fantastically expensive projects. Now the Department of Energy has actually issued its first one, an $8.33 billion guarantee to support the construction of two nuclear reactors to be built at the site of an existing nuclear power plant in Burke, GA.
It's been decades since new nuclear reactors have been built in the United States. In 2005 Congress passed a law allowing the DOE to issue loan guarantees for nuclear power plants to get construction going again. But it's taken until now for the department to issue one. (Read the TR article "Obama Goes Nuclear" to see why the guarantees are needed.) The $8.33 billion is part of the $18.5 billion provided for such loan guarantees in the 2005 bill. President Obama's proposed budget would increase the total by $36 billion, enough for about seven new plants.
The loan guarantee for the Burke reactors comes with a catch, however. The design for the nuclear reactors to be used there--the Westinghouse AP1000--hasn't yet passed muster with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Last October the commission informed Westinghouse that it had to fix problems with the "shield building" which is supposed to protect the reactor from "severe weather and other events."
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murraypetera
2 Comments
Foolish direction
Since US nukes are indemnified to a small fraction of the liability, they are able to operate. No private insurance company would ever insure them. The power company also has no liability to dispose of the waist and we have no way of safely disposing of it. Take away these subsidies and Nuclear Power is no longer feasible.
The money being wasted on Nuclear Power were invested into Solar, wind, wave, etc. we would break our addition to oil very quickly.
This all seems like political favors. Just goes to show all politicians are corrupt and self serving.
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fiberman
186 Comments
Re: Foolish direction
Unfortunately, human errors have caused problems at many of the current power plants, including 3 Mile Island, Browns Ferry and it seems monthly at San Onofre.
40 years ago, I was a frequent visitor at Nuclear Fuel Services, a prototype reprocessing plant in West Valley, NY that was the biggest nuclear hazard I've ever seen - all due to human errors. Most nuclear sites have become superfund sites. Anybody doing an online search turns up multiple incidents here in the USA. Then there is Chernobyl...
But France has done well. Why?
I do have a suggestion. If we're going to spend all those $billions building a nuclear plant, why not go ahead and bury it a couple of thousand feet underground. When it's decommissioned, it will already be buried. During it's lifetime, it's not likely to affect anybody on the surface and it can be easily guarded from terrorists.
Reply
kstauff
130 Comments
Re: Foolish direction
The accidents you cite are over 30 years old, and Chernobyl is not relevant to US nuclear facilities at all. Please identify for the readers here all of the death and destruction you seem so sure is a problem. You seem to have lots of information; I'd like to see links to what you're talking about.
Or are you just blowing smoke here?
Reply
fiberman
186 Comments
Re: Foolish direction
And which part of the nuclear power industry do you work for?
Want to quote statistics on the uptime of nuclear power plants? The actual costs of generating electricity? Success of plans to store nuclear waste? Why they are better than other potential alternative (to oil or gas) sources of energy?
I have been in industries selling to nuclear industries and R&D since 1968 and have acquaintances who have investigated accidents.
So spill the beans on your slant.
Reply
kstauff
130 Comments
Re: Foolish direction
I don't work in the nuclear industry. You haven't provided any of the information I requested. I await your informative response.
Reply
R Sweeney
68 Comments
Re: Foolish direction
Nuclear power is reliably on 24/7.
Predictable, dispatchable.
There is simply nothing like this in the "alternative" energy arena where everything costs more and has less reliability.
Dominion Virginia Power creates nuclear electricity at 1.4 cents/Kw-hr here in central VA.
Compare that to the going rate of Renewable Energy Credits in the Dominion PJM interconnect... which run $0.20-0.66 per KW-hr.
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