My op-ed in the VDT today; I’ve added links, plus some more after the op-ed.

Finally! Kewaunee, Calvert Cliffs, and now Crystal River
permanently closing say it’s time for Georgia to stop wasting money
on Southern Company’s already over-budget and increasingly-late
nukes and get on with solar power and wind off the coast: for
jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and plenty of
clean water.

February 2013:

Duke Energy is closing the Crystal River nuclear
reactor

(Tampa Bay Times, 6 Feb 2013),
160 miles south of us, because

nobody wants to pay to fix it:
between “$1.5 billion and $3.4 billion,
plus what it costs to buy power to replace
what Crystal River would have produced while it is
being repaired”

[Charlotte Business Journal, 11 Jan 2013].

November 2012:

NRC terminated Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs 3

(NRC 1 Nov 2012)
after

Constellation Energy dropped out because the cost “is too high
and creates too much risk for Constellation”

[Bloomberg 10 Oct 2010].

October 2012:

Dominion Power decided to close
Wisconsin’s
Kewaunee reactor

(Dominion Power PR 22 Oct 2012)
as not economically viable with no buyer

(JSOnline 30 Oct 2012).

January 2012:

leaks shut down California’s

Google already deployed 2 gigawatts of wind and solar power for $1 billion: almost as much as Vogtle 3 and 4’s projected 2.2 GW, for less than Georgia Power customers have already paid.

San Onofre 3 and 4 in

(NRC 31 Jan 2012)
and

their owners want the NRC to let them reopen Unit 4
as an experiment while refusing to show the public
any evidence that that would be safe

(NRC 18 Dec 2012).
[Actually San Onofre 2 and 3 shut down, and it’s Unit 2 they want to reopen;
my error. -jsq]

June 2009:

Moody’s called nuclear a

“bet-the-farm risk”,
and it’s our farms and houses and businesses the legislature is betting.

April 2009:

Georgia’s SB 31
“Energy Rate Increases to Finance Nuclear Power Plant Construction”

authorized Georgia Power to charge customers for power nobody
is getting from Vogtle 3 and 4,

$1.7 billion so far (Kristi Swartz, AJC, 1 Nov 2012),
plus

about a billion over budget and at least 15 months behind
schedule

(GPB 18 Dec 2012),
with
concrete pouring errors

(Aiken Leader 14 Jan 2013)
much like

those that ended Crystal River

(NRC 10 Oct 2012).

1987:

Vogtle 1 and 2 cost 26 times
the original estimate

(Kristi Swartz, AJC, 30 Jan 2012).

Now:

It’s time for the legislature to revoke SB 31, and to pass

2013’s GA SB 51, “The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act”,
which will enable financing for rooftop solar for jobs and
lower electric bills throughout Georgia.

And

it’s time for Gov. Deal to get on board with ten other
Atlantic state governors for wind power off the coast

(DOI 8 June 2010).

Google already deployed
2 gigawatts of wind and solar power
for $1 billion

(David Goldman, CNNMoney 10 Jan 2013):
almost as much as

Vogtle 3 and 4’s projected 2.2 GW,
for less than Georgia Power customers have already paid.
Let’s get on with real 21st century renewable energy:
conservation, efficiency, and wind and solar power, for jobs,
health, air and water!

John S. Quarterman Lowndes County

Since then

HB 267 to stop Georgia Power from charging customers for Plant Vogtle
cost overruns
has been proposed in the Georgia General Assembly,
and it turns out reactors closing for financial reasons goes back to

Maine Yankee in 1997 and even before.
That (plus Kewaunee and Crystal River)

bodes well for
San Onofre 2 staying closed permanently,
although
Maine Yankee may close first,
and

Entergy can’t keep Pilgrim Station up in a snowstorm,
not to mention Entergy can’t keep the lights on during the SuperBowl.

How about we stop shovelling money into nukes and spend it on dependable
solar and wind power instead?

-jsq