Posted on 12/18/2017 3:35:50 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
The Georgia Public Service Commission on Thursday is set to decide the fate of Plant Vogtle, the only nuclear reactor under construction in the U.S., which is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
At Thursday’s hearing, a commission made of five elected officials, all Republicans, will vote on whether to permit Georgia Power’s new plan for the project, which includes an updated cost projection and construction timeline, or to cancel it.
Georgia Power is estimating $12.2 billion in costs for its 45.7 percent share of the project, and for the reactors to be producing electricity by 2021 or 2022.
This cost estimate is nearly double the company’s original projection, and the timeline is five years behind schedule. The cost of the project for Georgia Power and its co-owners exceeds $20 billion.
The commission's decision will come days after the embattled nuclear industry learned that House and Senate Republicans as part of a tax reform package would not grant the extension of a key tax credit for new nuclear production that could have benefited the Southern Co. plant.
Jeremy Harrell, policy director of Clear Path Action, a group that advocates for clean energy sources such as nuclear power, which has zero greenhouse gas emissions, said extending the tax credit could have sent a strong signal to Georgia’s regulators.
“Southern Co. has said this is essential for projecting financing of Vogtle,” Harrell told the Washington Examiner. “It's not an ideal situation.”
Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., has pitched Plant Vogtle since 2009 as a way to revive the U.S. nuclear industry to supplement an aging fleet, promising that two reactors planned for the site would give the state emission-free electricity for as long as 80 years.
Today, 60 percent of the carbon-free energy produced in the U.S. comes from the nation's existing 99 nuclear power plants. Nearly 20 percent of the nation’s electricity is provided by nuclear.
But in March, Westinghouse, the lead contractor on the project that designed the reactors, went bankrupt, imperiling the future of the plant.
In July, South Carolina utilities announced it would cancel a separate plan for two nuclear reactors in the state because of cost overruns after Westinghouse, also the reactor's designer for that project, went bankrupt. But Georgia Power pledged to press ahead with Plant Vogtle, a boon to advocates of nuclear power who stress its zero-emissions status and consider nuclear to be more reliable than wind and solar energy.
Supporters of the project are downplaying the impact of the lost nuclear production tax credit in the final GOP tax bill.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., a prominent Vogtle booster, told the Washington Examiner he expects Congress will extend the tax incentive later this year or early next as part of a package of “tax extenders” for expiring credits. Under current law, developers can receive the credit only if the reactors become active by the end of 2020. That would not meet Vogtle’s extended timeline, so Georgia Power is looking for an extension.
“I am committed to doing whatever I can to ensure that the Plant Vogtle project stays on track for completion to strengthen America’s energy security and to preserve the more than 6,000 Georgia jobs created by this project,” Isakson said. “I have been actively discussing this matter with constituent stakeholders as well as Senate and House leadership, and we are working on a path forward to get a nuclear tax credit extension passed this year or early next year.”
Georgia Power has other important backers. The Energy Department in September offered an additional loan guarantee of up to $3.7 billion to the companies building Vogtle. The department had already guaranteed $8.3 billion in loans to the companies.
The public power companies building the plant have asked the Public Service Commission to allow Georgia Power to recoup Vogtle's new costs from customers. But commission staff filed a document this month arguing that customers would incur too high of a cost to justify the economics of the project.
"Assuming the project is completed, ratepayers would incur significantly higher revenue requirements and a reduced economic benefit while the company's profits would increase," wrote PSC staff consultants Phil Hayet and Lane Kollen, and Tom Newsome, the PSC staff's utilities finance director.
Kurt Ebersbach, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Atlanta, who is advocating the commission oppose the plan, said the company’s expectations are unfair to ratepayers.
“It’s a very lopsided, heavy-handed proposal for Georgia Power to say we want the commission to approve a revised cost schedule and additional years of delay, in addition to assurances we will recover every last penny from customers,” Ebersbach told the Washington Examiner. “It’s unreasonable.”
John Kraft, a Georgia Power spokesman, insists the benefits of the project will outweigh costs.
“We remain confident that the unified recommendation to move forward with construction represents the best choice for customers while preserving the benefits of a new carbon-free energy source for our state,” Kraft told the Washington Examiner.
I was trying to say it took them half the time to get to 16%, in the case of plant 5 as it did for plant 3. Sorry for the confusion
Did we lose sight of the fact this construction was driven by the false premises of global warming and peak oil?
The contractor stipulated that Utility would pay penalty after the plans were approved for any changes that that the Utility demanded.
The place ran for 42 years, the only problems that I saw in the 22 years I worked there was the Utility didn't have a clue about how to run or maintain a power generation facility.
I was an engineer for C-E at 3/5.
“Did we lose sight of the fact this construction was driven by the false premises of global warming and peak oil?”
LOL!
In the water and on the shores refers to marine life and mammal die offs.
I’ll put some links below. I’ve been watching this unfold since 2011 and it’s flat out depressing to go looking for links, to think of it all. The links below are mostly from 2017 and they are just a small sample.
The first impacts I recall were sea stars dying off the entire west coast. Then there were reports of Alaskan islands where entire bird populations were dead - just an island covered with dead birds. And mammals covered with oozing lesions etc.
There’s alway projected reasons for lesions, pus, brain infections, “melting tissue” and starvation etc. There’s an account of someone well known in boating who lamented teh “dead ocean” he just crossed, noting that in years past it was teaming and now it was silent.
The places I visit routinely in California have changed. In Moss Landing and Monterey Bay, the sea lions bark like (annoying dogs) and weigh down the docks with their bodies. Now they are gone except for a handful - covered and sinking docks to 3 - 5.
Lots of starvation. People were “amazed” and “delighted” to see “so many different kinds of whales all fishing in the same little spot in Monterey Bay!” and I realized that those very different hunters with very different migration habits were all crammed together in the bay because there isn’t food left in their normal hunting grounds. So - I’m not going to document back to 2011 but here are some links from 2017.
Fisheries:
http://theava.com/archives/66899
https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2017/02/01/japanese-salmon-fisheries-in-historic-collapse/
http://russgeorge.net/2017/01/31/japanese-salmon-fisheries-in-historic-collapse/
Cod die-off
https://www.ktoo.org/2017/11/06/cod-numbers-gulf-alaska-fall-dramatically/
https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/gulf-of-alaska-cod-stocks-at-all-time-lows
Dolphins and other:
https://www.10news.com/news/dead-dolphin-mystery-explained-by-scripps-insitution-of-oceanography
Birds
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/05/29/sick-dead-seabirds-pelicans-ventura-santa-barbara/
http://www.cbs8.com/story/35546701/pelicans-sick-dying-along-the-ventura-santa-barbara-coast
Crustacean and Assortment:
http://khon2.com/2017/05/02/thousands-of-tiny-crabs-wash-onto-north-shore-beaches/
Sea Stars:
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/12/oregon_coast_isolated_from_mys.html
http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx%3Fid%3D76044
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/05/starfish-wasting-disease-scientists-west-coast
Sharks:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Leopard-sharks-dying-by-the-hundreds-in-San-11125473.php
http://abc7news.com/society/leopard-sharks-dying-in-record-numbers-in-sf-bay/1954836/
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20170408/NEWS/170409701
Sea Lions
http://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/cancer-at-sea
https://www.independent.com/news/2017/apr/25/scores-birds-sea-lions-suffering-likely-domoic-aci/
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/04/24/two-whale-carcasses-wash-ashore-in-santa-cruz-county/
Fallout in Hawaii 200 times than expected:
https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/fukushima-derived-radiocesium-fallout-in-hawaiian-soils-ga8XszlLNi?key=elsevier
http://www.cornell.edu/video/five-years-after-fukushima-lessons-learned-nuclear-accidents
“Immediately after the earthquake, the remaining reactors 1-3 shut down automatically, and emergency generators came online to control electronics and coolant systems. However the tsunami following the earthquake quickly flooded the low-lying rooms in which the emergency generators were housed.”
So don’t build where there’s risk of both earthquake and sudden flooding. Problem solved.
Actually that westing house designed reactor had a weakness that was detailed in an internal memo (pressure blowback or something like that) and they chose to ignore it. There are still terror attacks and floods (Texas) to consider and design flaws created with new designs. The problem seems to be hubris - the belief that perfect people will design perfect reactors that will run perfectly.
None of the dieoffs you linked were from radiation!
You talk out of your a$$
Ahem...the government insures and is liable for radiation leaks so no, no government in the world admits to anything. For example, Russia still denies that large regions of the Ukraine suffer debilitating illnesses from radioactive waste. Japan denies it’s responsibility, the US helps it.
Radioactive waste suppresses immunity so diseases that could normally be defeated win. That’s win-win for the radiation lobby. YAY! OOZING CANCERS ARE UP! Every now and then a brave, soon to be unemployed scientists says “hey, maybe it’s from Fukushima” and sadly he/she is not heard from again. Gov underwrites science funding - you won’t get scientists who want funding admitting to much.
You just have to watch entire islands full of birds die, sea lions stop reproducing and have their bones turn to cancerous mush, sea stars rip apart and melt and docks, harbors along the coast fall silent. Since you don’t go to the beach with geiger counters, rest assured the nuke lobby will deny epic die offs throughout the pacific. And if you do go to the beach with equipment, they’ll snort at it’s amateur findings. There’s no news unless the MSM says it’s news, remember. Anyone outside the MSM must have an “agenda”! So let it all die right in front of you and keep denying that continuously venting radioactive waste into the ocean for the past 6.5 years and for the rest of our lives has NO effect at all.
Here’s a hint - stay away from seafood. Sadly, this is all transferring to land slowly but for now, just avoid the seafood and don’t bother taking cruises.
None of the dieoffs you linked were from radiation!
___________________________________________
Did you REALLY expect them to admit to wild life die offs when they deny the effects on humans living in Fukushima area today? ReallY?
That doubtless added.
And yet a diversity of sources is wise. One bets on more than one earthly basket.
I hear that nukes of today aren’t the safest possible kind. They look like the descendants of the Manhattan Project they are. That was easily built, not so easily maintained. Maybe thorium reactors could be the next generation. If they lose coolant they won’t melt “to China.”
A poor schmoe who can’t reliably finger how wrong someone is even in a biker fight is expected to do it here?
Just came back from a cruise and ate lots of lobster, fish and clams.
Dude, get a life ...
“Ahem...the government insures and is liable for radiation leaks “
US plants are privately insured.
I am happy you see the truth through the eyes of a union pipefitter instead of someone who has spent his career designing, testing and operating nuclear reactors ...
Ah did you understand what cast of clowns that this “profession” was expected to work with? And “union pipefitter” is the least of it.
There really ought to have been a line item in the bids: “Add 100% for various ‘civic’ shenanigans.”
And then watch the fun begin.
I hope you can sleep it off before heading back to work.
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