[Rodamala]

I had a job inspecting some out of use railroad track along the Connecticut River that passed the site of the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Generating Station (on the opposite side of the river). Unless you knew it had been there previously, you would never know it existed.

The interesting thing is that the cost of closure of these plants is completely covered by the federal government.

For all the hype about power plant construction, atomic energy in particular is a HUGE cash grab of taxpayer billions by crony capitalists.

If the power generation industry had to make their own capital investment to provide a return for their stockholders, and the 0bama "kill private enterprise and energy independence at all cost" agenda was shut down by the Republican Congress, these corporations would be building coal-fired plants right now. Coal is CHEAP and easy to move. We can't have that. No way.

[Ditto]

The interesting thing is that the cost of closure of these plants is completely covered by the federal government. For all the hype about power plant construction, atomic energy in particular is a HUGE cash grab of taxpayer billions by crony capitalists.

That is not accurate.

Before a nuclear power plant begins operations, the licensee must establish or obtain a financial mechanism – such as a trust fund or a guarantee from its parent company – to ensure there will be sufficient money to pay for the ultimate decommissioning of the facility. Each nuclear power plant licensee must report to the NRC every two years the status of its decommissioning funding for each reactor or share of a reactor that it owns. The report must estimate the minimum amount needed for decommissioning by using the formulas found in 10 CFR 50.75(c). Licensees may alternatively determine a site-specific funding estimate, provided that amount is greater than the generic decommissioning estimate.

Source: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/decommissioning.html#funds