Tag Archives: NEIL

Duke Energy is closing Crystal River nuclear reactor



Finally!
The reactor
only 160 miles from here
that

nobody wanted to pay to fix
is closing for good: Duke is closing Crystal River.
After Kewaunee and Crystal River closing, which one is next?
San Onofre?
The never-opened Vogtle 3 and 4?

Ivan Penn wrote for Tampa Bay Times today,

Duke Energy announces closing of Crystal River nuclear power plant,

Duke Energy announced early Tuesday it will permanently close the
Crystal River nuclear plant that has been shut down since late 2009.



The company said it is reviewing alternatives, including building a
new natural gas plant, to replace the power produced by the nuclear
facility.

Duke's four coal-fired plants will remain in service at the same
Citrus County complex where the nuclear plant, known as CR3, is
located.



How about they build
offshore wind farms
and solar farms
instead, like

TEPCO is doing near Fukushima?
Those can be built on time and on budget, use no fuel, and cause no pollution.
And how about

rooftop solar for jobs and energy independence?

There's more in

the article,
including this:

Continue reading →

Crystal River nuke still can’t get insurance payoff



Nobody wants to pay to fix

Progress Energy's Crystal River nuke:
not PGN, not its new owner Duke Energy, not
Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd. (NEIL).
So maybe this nuke, only

160 miles from here,
will be staying shut permanently?
What say we do the same for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle,
only

200 miles from here,
before they even open?

John Downey
wrote for the Charlotte Business Journal,

Crystal River nuke plant stymies Duke Energy
Utility facing penalties, high costs for repairs,

After two mediation sessions, Progress Energy Florida and its
insurer haven't agreed how much of the potential repair costs for
the utility's crippled Crystal River nuclear unit are covered.

It appears all but certain that Progress — a Duke Energy Corp.
subsidiary — will have to pay millions of dollars as a penalty
for failing to make a timely decision on whether to repair the
plant.

Repair expenses have been calculated at 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.

What kept shut Crystal River down from 2009 on was

a concrete containment separation.
Maybe those

errors in pouring concrete at Plant Vogtle
are

Continue reading →

Florida Crystal River nuke down $5 billion?



Only
160 miles from here,
the Crystal River nuclear reactor continues to run up a bad bill,
maybe as much as $5 billion,
and even other nuclear operators are reportedly starting to turn against it.
Should we wait for the new nukes on the Savannah River to run up a bill
that high before we cancel them?

Remember

back in May?

Florida is already experiencing a likely future for the new Plant
Vogtle nukes in Georgia: completion date pushed back, and customer
charges raised.

Yep, that’s the one.
And the bill keeps going up, as
Ivan Penn wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 30 December 2012,

Utilities nationwide could share the financial pain of the idled Crystal River nuclear plant,

The crippled Crystal River nuclear plant is now America’s headache.

The bill to fix it and pay for replacement power may top $5 billion.
The problem?

The company that insures all 104 U.S. nuclear power plants has just
$3.6 billion on hand to pay for claims.

Broken nuclear plants in California, Texas and Michigan will vie for
some of that money. But Crystal River alone represents such a
financial threat that the insurance company, Nuclear Electric
Insurance Ltd., may demand that its member utilities pony up more
money.

Is NEIL the guarantor on the bonds for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle?
I think Southern Company was smarter (for SO, not for us)
and

got Congress to guarantee those.
If so,

Continue reading →