U.S. Set to Okay New Nuclear Plants
source: http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/08/news/economy/nuclear_reactors/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3
-
-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
.
New nuclear reactors set to be OK'd for Georgia
By Steve Hargreaves @CNNMoney
February 8, 2012: 3:33 PM ET
.
.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is set to approve the construction of two new reactors at Georgia's Vogtle plant, seen here. It would be the first new construction license for a reactor granted in over 30 years.
.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) --
.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve licenses to build two new nuclear reactors on Thursday, the first approvals in over 30 years.
The reactors are being built in Georgia by a consortium of utilities led by Southern Co. (SO, Fortune 500) They will be sited at the Vogtle nuclear power plant complex, about 170 miles east of Atlanta. The plant already houses two older reactors.
Spokespeople for Southern Co. and the NRC were quiet on the matter Wednesday ahead of the vote set for Thursday at 1 PM ET. If approved, NRC staff would likely issue a construction and operating license within the next few days.
Although new nuclear reactors have been built in this country within the last couple of decades -- the last one started operation in 1996 -- the NRC hasn't issued a license to build a new reactor since 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. The reactors that have opened in the last decades were approved before 1978.
The combination of the Three Mile Island incident and the high costs of nuclear power turned many utilities away from the technology.
There are currently 104 operating nuclear reactors at 64 plants across the country that provide the nation with roughly 20% of its power. Half are over 30 years old.
The utilities building the new Vogtle reactors submitted their application seven years ago. Prep-work at the site has been under way for some time, but the actual reactors can't be built until NRC issues the final license.
.
How close is your home to a nuclear plant?
The new reactors are a Westinghouse design called the AP 1000. Together they are expected to cost $14 billion and provide 2200 megawatts of power, according to a spokesman for Southern Co. That's enough to power 1 million homes.
The plants are being built with the help of a conditional $8.3 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The loan guarantee is part of DOE's broader loan program that has been criticized for backing companies like Solyndra, the bankrupt maker of solar panels.
The Southern spokesman said the loan guarantee, combined with other regulatory measures, enable the project to receive cheaper financing that will ultimately save ratepayers $1 billion.
The first reactor is expected to come online in 2016 and the second one in 2017, according to Southern Co.
The AP 1000 is the newest NRC-approved nuclear reactor. This would be the first one built in the United States, although four are already under construction in China, said Scott Shaw, a Westinghouse spokesman.
Critics have said the containment walls of the AP 1000 aren't strong enough to withstand a terrorist attack, but Shaw says they were redesigned after September 11, 2001 and have held up during simulations.
He also said the design's passive cooling system makes it much safer than older designs. The AP 1000 uses gravity and condensation -- not electricity -- to cool the fuel rods.
It was the loss of electric power that led to the meltdown of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi reactors following the tsunami in 2011.
Still, a coalition of nine mostly regional environmental groups say the current design is not safe. They are asking the NRC to delay its decision Thursday until they can file a challenge in federal court.
.
First Published: February 8, 2012: 2:20 PM ET
.
GRAPHIC:
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is set to approve the construction of two new reactors at Georgia's Vogtle plant, seen here. It would be the first new construction license for a reactor granted in over 30 years.
.
CLICK ON LINK TO ARTICLE TO VIEW VIDEO
.
.
-
- groups:
- Community, News and Politics, Tech, Green, 23 more
-
- tags:
- Green, Environment, Safety, Green Energy, 26 more
-
- recommended by:
- EthicalVegan
-
-
Wetdog
-
----------" The new reactors are a Westinghouse design called the AP 1000. Together they are expected to cost $14 billion and provide 2200 megawatts of power, according to a spokesman for Southern Co. That's enough to power 1 million homes."------------
There has never been a nuclear reactor that has been finished on schedule, or within the original cost estimate. Some have cost as much as three times the original estimates.
$14 billion / 2.2 Gw = $6.36 per watt
And there is no continuing cost for security or waste disposal with renewable energy sources.
And these are the people who are screaming that $3/w for solar and $1.75/w for wind are too outrageously expensive to even consider.
And now they want you to take their word for it that their new design is safe and effective. Right after the last one they claimed was safe and effective has been proven to be neither safe, nor effective. It required the pumping of millions of gallons of seawater over several weeks to avoid a complete meltdown. And water is something that is in very short supply in Georgia right now---they have been having a drought for the last 3 years.
- 4 months ago
-
Wetdog
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
Wetdog:
The nuclear reactors have to over-produce to take up line losses, plus the electric customer is charged for what the reactor PRODUCES, NOT WHAT REACHES HIS HOME.
Your figures may be low-balled. Electric power should be generated if at all possible at POS (Point-of-Service i.e. the home), not sent hundreds of miles through wires, transformers and substations and circuitry.
There's no need for all that. Nuclear is fine for industry's needs but homes it's a fail. Homes need to be transferred over to using DC. AC power throws off electrical & magnetic fields inside the home that RAKES PEOPLE'S NERVES plus causes cancers.
AC Power inside homes is Deadly.
AC Power destroys motors faster too.Women standing near to dishwashers develop uterine cancer and pelvic inflammatory disease and endometriosis, all painful diseases. AC needs to go.
Short children standing near the same dishwasher puts their eyeballs in the fileds. Infants crawling around closer to wall outlet wiring is also bad, given time. Cell damage is cumulative, leads to cancers (mitochondria breakdown).
Good post Wetdog!
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
Johnny_Los_Angeles
-
Only in the U.S..... while most other countries are shutting down nukes we are building more. In Germany after Fukushima they shut down 7 of the oldest most risky nuke plants and have vowed to shut down all remaining ones by 2020 8 yrs from now and replace them all with renewable energy. Germany is now 20% powered by wind alone with solar not far behind, this was done by paying subsidies to the consumers YES i said CONSUMERS if they sold back electricity from solar and wind to the utilities. So now this also caused them to be a leader in solar technology creating many new hi tech jobs and make them an stronger exporter and one of the stronger economic powers in a failing europe.
So what do we do in the U.S.?? We subsidize fossils fuel industry with over 70 billion dollars a year. And we then get flooded with TV commercials from these fossil fuel co's to brainwash the ignorant masses into thinking the only way to go is drill drill drill and frack frack frack and these commercials are paid for by YOU and YOUR gas dollars.
Now were building more nukes and we DONT need them, we should be building with solar and wind.
MADNESS.
- 4 months ago
-
Johnny_Los_Angeles
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
Johnny_Los_Angeles:
I just don't get it. Some people are never pleased. Look, ya get a new messiah every 4 years, and yet still complain, complain, complain. If the U.S. did stuff copying other countries we'd hafta turn in all our "Leader of the Free World" badges.
That isn't gonna happen. So what if Canadians scrape their leg and walk into a clinic with no money and get treated and medicated anyway. WE CAN'T DO THAT MESS. We have to be Frank Sinatra and gotta be me, you see. Yeah.
Germans, they're all Crazy. We can't do stuff the way crazy Germans do. Don't you see that Lionheart? We have to join the French Foreign Legion and have big men beat us up in the noonday heat so that we have to hop a freighter to Los Angeles and be a kickboxer.
Life has to be hard, for us, otherwise we might fall into slovenly happiness.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
Gravity_Man:
Such as for instance 6 weeks paid vacation time per year... to like have quality time with family and friends. Americans don't need Friends => WE HAVE THEM ON TV.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
circlesquared
-
if you notice where these are to be built, most are on fault lines awaiting disaster. Almost seems intentional when you look for patterns in the madness we are told is progress.
- 4 months ago
-
circlesquared
-
-
circlesquared
-
circlesquared:
truth at San Onofre the "clean" energy industry doesn't want us to know about
http://current.com/community/93656551_san-onofre-whistleblower-this-is-extremely...
- 4 months ago
-
circlesquared
-
-
Novek
-
We need to act now, the 99% needs to pick this up and run far far away from these things. We've seen what happens when nature decides to retaliate. We need to stop this before they ever get their funding.
- 4 months ago
-
Novek
-
-
ecoalex
-
Another example of stupid.Wind,solar now produce more electricity than nuclear in the US ,and is safe,clean.Instead Georgia went stupid.The most expensive dangerous way to boil water,S-T-U-P-I-D.
- 4 months ago
-
ecoalex
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
ecoalex:
Friend, you don't know a FRACTION of how right you are. Georgia is next to the OCEAN and I know a special way to combine ocean energy with Solar into a Combination System you wouldn't believe in a thousand years.
To say they made a wrong turn is a fraction shadow of the truth.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
ecoalex:
You recall that solar tower in Arizona right? Hot air rushing out the top? Have any idea how much SUCTION that would be to pull ocean water up through electric generators???
My system is a lot more than that, and I won't reveal it here today, but that's the core gist in a nutshell. Solar drives generators pulling ocean water up against the force of Gravity with a Mighty Joe Young heave.
Plus you deliver cleaned potable drinking water to every nation on Earth; plus Georgia. As opposed to filthying up water as those nuke plants will do.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
ecoalex:
Each U.S. state that has ocean frontage is Energy Rich, from Maine to Virginia to Florida, plus Florida has double the ocean frontage of most so FL is doubly Rich. Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, TEXAS, then there's California, Oregon and Washington also Rich in Ocean Energy and sunlight.
For the price of those two Georgia nuclear plants being built half the population of the United States would have gobs of energy AND GOBS OF FRESH WATER.
So what we're watching is the Greatest Joke of all Time staying on crude oil and nuclear both obsolete, for years now actually.
Tesla made them obsolete 80 years ago. Floyd Sweet made them obsolete 24 years ago. Riley (me) has made them obsolete multiple times over since 1989, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011. The yolks on us folks.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
percipi224
-
this is true. a woman i met here in Canon says her son is working on this project. crap. no one in georgia fought this? why are we constantly being forced into the lesser of two evils in this country.....nuke or coal......but what happens is we end up with both......after i saw the ghg data and saw how much pollution from coal and refining there is, nuke started looking good.....i had to slap my own face and say "snap out of it".....
- 4 months ago
-
percipi224
-
-
idealist
-
D'oh!!!
- 4 months ago
-
idealist
-
-
The_Wanderer_Kansas
-
--sighs--
- 4 months ago
-
The_Wanderer_Kansas
-
-
COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
-
It would seem that the People are being compelled to deliver nuclear reactor rods and waste to the halls of Congress, 1600 Pennsylvania and nuclear industry executives, who bribe Congress to condone nuclear proliferation, before our elected hear our message that we do not accept nuclearizing the U.S., while clean, safe and sustainable energy has not been made a priority of a national energy emergency. The fact that this in not a national emergency, while hundreds of billions are still being spent throughout the middle east for oil, in and of itself is reason why not one individual in government deserves to be reelected.
- 4 months ago
-
COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
-
-
warman1138
-
Are we getting dumber or is it just devolution.
- 4 months ago
-
warman1138
-
-
COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
-
warman1138:
It's simply that "we" are still waiting for someone else to march on Washington and demand a change.
- 4 months ago
-
COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
-
-
Leen61
-
We never seem to learn, do we?
- 4 months ago
-
Leen61
-
-
rerushg
-
I sure hate to say it here but this design does seem to be rational with a passive cooling system and "airplane proof" outer walls. Guess I gotta be optimistic since I live about 100 miles directly downwind.
What's bugs me is a cost of $14B but China got 4 identical units for $8B (ok, they're not "airplane proof"; which is not a big difference). That's $7B each for 2, $2B each for 4. Heck of a volume discount. - 4 months ago
-
rerushg
-
-
cztheday
-
rerushg:
gotta wonder about the labor "laws" (guidelines?) that protected the workers who built and who will maintain the Chinese plants as well as the plans they have for disposing of the waste. Usually one gets what one pays for...
- 4 months ago
-
cztheday
-
-
rerushg
-
cztheday:
For sure. Still, the cost differential is astonishing. I think the brunt of it is that in China we see what Westinghouse is paid in a direct deal with China but on our side we see the cost claim by Southern Company which probably includes a lot of financial layers compounded on top of each other, other minor projects shuffeled into the deal, and a fair amount of padding.
- 4 months ago
-
rerushg
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
cztheday:
"One" gets sleepy employees manning the nuclear consoles because they work two other jobs to make ends meet.
Speaking to the cost => one lightning bolt can carry as much as 500,000 Volts punch. #2, lightning bolts can be attracted to a location for "milking". #3, there are specific areas in the U.S. that gets regular lightning storms (the South, the southern tier states).
And the Cons? If the South was milking storms of their lightning energy the southern states WOULD rise again. That simply cannot ever be allowed to happen. There's too many Blacks down that way. Keeping them dirt Poor makes oops Whites look G-O-O-D. Besides, it is Just & Right because they have too many Bibles down there anyway.
And if they EVAH find out Jesus healed the Blind Man (John Chapter 9) by using a mud paste that saliva~carried his Stem Cells into the man's eyes, proving he was God's son and quite uber divine (and a full copy of Adam), that would just be unacceptable. Keeping Blacks poor also keeps them working 3 jobs >>> also keeping them too dog tired eyeballs to read John Chapter 9. Yep.
That's the ball being run against Southern Blacks. Plus dump some Corexit on em too. They can pray, they can go ta Sunday Meeting and LISTEN, but they cannot be allowed to read.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
-
-
sugarmountian
-
Will we ever learn?
- 4 months ago
-
sugarmountian
-
-
cztheday
-
Humanity has proven again and again that it is not capable of handling nuclear power in a responsible, long-term manner. I equate this policy with one of handing a class of second-graders loaded handguns and then warning them about their safety. Most would undoubtedly heed the warnings or at least understand the guns' inherent danger. But over time, disaster is inevitable.
- 4 months ago
-
cztheday
-
-
artemis6
-
Insane .
- 4 months ago
-
artemis6
-
-
Anonmaly
-
Why didn't they just go ahead and okay HEMP, and start phasing in higher energy efficiency standards on new building?
- 4 months ago
-
Anonmaly
-
-
EthicalVegan
-
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/08/news/economy/nuclear_reactors/index.htm?hpt=hp_t...
CNN...
.
A Nuclear Renaissance in America
.
The Southern spokesman said the loan guarantee, combined with other regulatory measures, enable the project to receive cheaper financing that will ultimately save ratepayers $1 billion.
The first reactor is expected to come online in 2016 and the second one in 2017, according to Southern Co.
The AP 1000 is the newest NRC-approved nuclear reactor. This would be the first one built in the United States, although four are already under construction in China, said Scott Shaw, a Westinghouse spokesman.
Critics have said the containment walls of the AP 1000 aren't strong enough to withstand a terrorist attack, but Shaw says they were redesigned after September 11, 2001 and have held up during simulations.
He also said the design's passive cooling system makes it much safer than older designs. The AP 1000 uses gravity and condensation -- not electricity -- to cool the fuel rods.
It was the loss of electric power that led to the meltdown of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi reactors following the tsunami in 2011.
Still, a coalition of nine mostly regional environmental groups say the current design is not safe. They are asking the NRC to delay its decision Thursday until they can file a challenge in federal court.
.
- 4 months ago
-
EthicalVegan
-
-
Gravity_Man
-
EthicalVegan:
Nuclear towers are tall, which means phallic, but they are also widened at the top, which makes em a big vagina. Yep. We truly are an advanced civilization to be admired.
- 4 months ago
-
Gravity_Man
