The Nuclear Retreat
We coined the term, "Nuclear Retreat" here at Beyond Nuclear to counter the nuclear industry's preposterous "nuclear renaissance" propaganda campaign. You've probably seen "Nuclear Retreat" picked up elsewhere and no wonder - the alleged nuclear revival so far looks more like a lot of running away. On this page we will keep tabs on every latest nuclear retreat as more and more proposed new nuclear programs are canceled.
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Gov. Brad Henry has vetoed a bill that would have eased restrictions on nuclear power in Oklahoma. Henry vetoed Senate Bill 2129 on Monday, saying the bill would "authorize actions that could serve as incentives for the construction of a nuclear power plant." The bill would have removed from law a prohibition against the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority owning an interest in a nuclear generating plant.
National Geographic, in an article entitled "New Nuclear Energy Grapples With Costs: Exelon Sees Weak Market, Others Think Climate Concerns Will Propel Industry," quotes Exelon CEO John Rowe that he plans no new reactors in the foreseeable future given their economic un-competitiveness.
A plan to begin uranium mining in Meghalaya, a move strongly opposed by residents, has been halted by a national panel of wildlife experts. Prospecting in the area some years ago had already caused serious health impacts to villagers. But it was the threat to rare forms of wildlife that ultimately stopped the plan. The National Board of Wildlife rejected the exploratory drilling proposal because of strong local opposition and also because the area is home to elephants, black bear, leopards, deer and the red panda, one of the world's rarest animals.
Reports Sonnenseite-Franz Alt: "Annual generation of nuclear power has continued on a slight downward trend, decreasing 2% last year to 2558 TWh, according to the latest estimates. With some data yet to come in, estimates by the International Atomic Energy Agency see nuclear power last year meeting 13-14% of the world's electricity demand, which continues to increase rapidly in the developing world. One factor in nuclear power's perfomance since 2007 has been the prolonged shutdown of large reactors at Kashiwazaki Kariwa in Japan following the Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake. This, the largest nuclear power plant in the world, accounts for 2% of nuclear capacity and was completely out of action for many months. Two reactors came back into service during 2009 with five still under repair".
The Gainesville Sun reports on May 5, 2010 that Florida Power & Light (FPL) has significantly postponed its plan to build a new reactor in Florida as originally proposed to be finished by 2016 to at least 2021, if ever. FPL asked state regulators for permission to cut nuclear recovery costs for its customers as the projected cost for the proposed two-unit Levy County nuclear power plant climbed over $17 billion to as much as $22.5 billion for the project. The high cost of nuclear power, growing legislative pressure to go solar in the "Sunshine State," and ratepayer push back are all attributed as factors in the nuclear utility's decision.
May 25, 2010