{"id":229,"date":"2013-01-02T11:10:51","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T16:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/florida-crystal-river-nuke-down-5-billion.html"},"modified":"2013-01-02T11:10:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T16:10:51","slug":"florida-crystal-river-nuke-down-5-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/florida-crystal-river-nuke-down-5-billion.html","title":{"rendered":"Florida Crystal River nuke down $5 billion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
\n<\/a>
\nOnly
\n160 miles from here<\/a>,
\nthe Crystal River nuclear reactor continues to run up a bad bill,
\nmaybe as much as $5 billion,
\nand even other nuclear operators are reportedly starting to turn against it.
\nShould we wait for the new nukes on the Savannah River to run up a bill
\nthat high before we cancel them?\n<\/p>\n

\nRemember
\n
\nback in May?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nFlorida is already experiencing a likely future for the new Plant
\nVogtle nukes in Georgia: completion date pushed back, and customer
\ncharges raised.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nYep, that’s the one.
\nAnd the bill keeps going up, as
\nIvan Penn wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 30 December 2012,
\n
\nUtilities nationwide could share the financial pain of the idled Crystal River nuclear plant<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe crippled Crystal River nuclear plant is now America’s headache.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe bill to fix it and pay for replacement power may top $5 billion.
\nThe problem?\n<\/p>\n

\nThe company that insures all 104 U.S. nuclear power plants has just
\n$3.6 billion on hand to pay for claims.\n<\/p>\n

\nBroken nuclear plants in California, Texas and Michigan will vie for
\nsome of that money. But Crystal River alone represents such a
\nfinancial threat that the insurance company, Nuclear Electric
\nInsurance Ltd., may demand that its member utilities pony up more
\nmoney.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIs NEIL the guarantor on the bonds for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle?
\nI think Southern Company was smarter (for SO, not for us)
\nand
\n
\ngot Congress to guarantee those.<\/a>
\nIf so,<\/p>\n


\nwe the taxpayers will end up being on the hook
\nfor Southern Company’s bad big bet.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nRepairing the plant could cost as much as $3.5 billion for
\nconstruction work and $300 million a year for related costs such as
\npurchasing alternative electricity while Crystal River remains off
\nline. That could push the total cost above $5 billion.\n<\/p>\n

\nSo far, NEIL has paid just under $300 million. The insurer stopped
\npaying after questions arose about how Progress Energy handled the
\n2009 replacement of old steam generators inside the nuclear plant’s
\n42-inch thick concrete containment wall. The Tampa Bay Times
\ndocumented how the wall cracked after Progress chose a
\ndo-it-yourself approach to save about $15 million rather than use
\nthe two companies that handled all similar projects in the nation.
\nAn attempt to repair the crack and bring the plant back online
\nresulted in more cracks.\n<\/p>\n

\nProgress Energy wants NEIL to pay the bulk of the tab. The insurance
\npolicy allows for a payment up to $2.25 billion for damage to the
\nplant, plus up to an extra $490 million for replacement power while
\nthe plant is idled.\n<\/p>\n

\nProgress, however, argues that the cracks resulted from two separate
\nproblems, which could increase the insurance payout to as much as
\n$5.4 billion.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nMeanwhile,
\n
\nGeorgia Power customers are already paying<\/a>
\nin advance on the boondoggle on the Savannah River,
\nand
\n
\nGeorgia Power can keep charging them even if it’s cancelled.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nEven other nuclear operators, even Progress Energy’s new owner, Duke Energy,
\nare reportedly turning against bad nuclear bets:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe power companies are “going to want to make sure that Progress
\n\u2014 and now Duke \u2014 and NEIL are being responsible,”
\nHarding said. \u201cI think NEIL is appropriately saying, \u2018Make your
\ncase, show this was an accident.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nHarding said even some Duke Energy employees have questioned whether
\nit was an accident or whether Progress was at fault and caused the
\ndamage.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThat’s the question I’ve heard from some of the folks at Duke.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nCrystal River already has an eight year delay scheduled.
\nOne observer remarked:\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is exactly what a fiasco looks like.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nHey, we can do worse in Georgia!
\n
\n<\/a>
\nLast time Southern Company built nukes on the Savannah River they were
\n
\nthat late and even farther over budget.<\/a>
\nShould we wait for SO’s new nukes to extend their
\ncurrent 15 month delay to eight years and their current about $1 billion
\ncost overrun to $5 billion or even more?
\nOr should we go ahead and answer GA Public Service Commissioner
\nDoug Everett’s question from a couple of weeks ago:\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\n\u201cWhich would you think would be best for the ratepayers of Georgia,
\nstop it now or continue with it?\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nWhat do you think?\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nYou can
\n
\ncontact the PSC,<\/a> or the legislature, or Georgia Power, or Southern Company
\ndirectly and tell them what you think.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,14,203,17,8,18,2,19,104,21,22],"tags":[8736,712,701,143,8704,8751,8707,8701,8708,8699,8709,8702,12,7,747,8737,1010,1009,8711,107,8712,389,314,955,108,6],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-florida","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-history","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","tag-activism","tag-boondoggle","tag-crystal-river","tag-duke-energy","tag-economy","tag-florida","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-neil","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-electric-insurance-ltd","tag-nuke","tag-planning","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-politics","tag-progress-energy","tag-reactor","tag-savannah-river","tag-southern-company","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}