Indiana Senator drops nuclear incentives bill

From IndyStar: Nuclear power plants won’t be coming to Indiana any time soon, after all. A key state senator has pulled his bill that would have provided financial incentives to utilities to build nuclear plants. Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis confirmed today he won’t hold hearings on his bill this session, and said construction of a nuclear plant is “probably more than a decade away.”

Another attempt at implementing Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) mercifully fails. CWIP fleeces ratepayers in advance, charging them for a nuclear power plant that may never be built. If built, it removes the financial burden of construction from the reactor owners. The upfront construction costs are one of the major deterrents to nuclear expansion and are usually only overcome at ratepayer expense. However, what makes the abandonment of this CWIP bill most interesting is that it was because of lack of interest from utilities who don't want to build uneconomical nuclear plants even if ratepayers front the construction costs.