Nuclear Costs
Estimates for new reactor construction costs continue to sky-rocket. Conservative estimates range between $6 and $12 billion per reactor but Standard & Poor's predicts a continued rise. The nuclear power industry is lobbying for heavy federal subsidization including unlimited loan guarantees but the Congressional Budget Office predicts the risk of default will be well over 50 percent, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Beyond Nuclear opposes taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies for the nuclear energy industry.
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September 21, 2017AJC: Georgia’s large power users save hundreds of millions on Plant Vogtle charges
Energy justice? Not in Georgia!
As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, different classes (a most apt term!) of electricity consumers are being charged different amounts, to pay in advance for the proposed new Vogtle 3 & 4 atomic reactors, long before they generate a single kilowatt-hour of electricity, if they ever do.
The article reports:
Georgia Power’s largest commercial customers have gotten breaks worth hundreds of millions of dollars off surcharges to finance the troubled Plant Vogtle nuclear project since 2011, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis shows.
The rest of its customers — homeowners, smaller businesses and government power users such as MARTA and cities — have paid nearly 90 percent of the $1.9 billion collected so far in monthly bills to bankroll the Atlanta utility’s construction of two new nuclear reactors at the plant near Augusta. They will likely use about 70 percent of the plant’s output.
In contrast, Georgia Power’s industrial customers have paid only 12 cents out of every dollar of total Vogtle surcharges, even though they will likely use more than a fourth of the troubled expansion’s power if it is ever completed.
Media coverage of Vogtle 3 & 4 slogging ahead, despite cost overruns, schedule delays
- WABE Atlanta - Nuclear Expansion: Plant Vogtle Final Price Tag Doubles - Molly Samuel
- Wall Street Journal - Georgia Power Wants to Press Ahead With Nuclear Plant Despite Rising Costs - Peg Brickley
Plant Vogtle builders to regulators: Keep going
As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The article reports:
Critics of the Vogtle project condemned Georgia Power’s recommendation.
“It is not a good deal for Georgia ratepayers,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer advocacy group. “I believe it is clearly uneconomic, and it is the (state utility regulator’s) responsibility to require the least-cost option,” said Coyle.
Critics have said the plant isn’t needed, and that Georgia Power and state regulators should also have looked at bigger investments in solar power and energy conservation instead.