{"id":244,"date":"2012-12-22T12:15:38","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T17:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/kewaunee-nuke-is-shutting-down-why-are-we-building-more-at-vogtle.html"},"modified":"2012-12-22T12:15:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-22T17:15:38","slug":"kewaunee-nuke-is-shutting-down-why-are-we-building-more-at-vogtle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/kewaunee-nuke-is-shutting-down-why-are-we-building-more-at-vogtle.html","title":{"rendered":"Kewaunee nuke is shutting down; why are we building more at Vogtle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nDominion Power is shutting down a nuke because it can’t compete economically.
\nWhy are we letting Georgia Power charge us up front and load us up with
\ndebt to build a nuke we already know can’t compete economically?
\nAfter all, if it could, it wouldn’t need
\n
\nthree-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool<\/a>
\nthat we the rate-payers and taxpayers are already paying on, instead of getting on with
\nsolar and wind power.\n<\/p>\n

\nAccording to
\n
\n22 October 2012 PR from Dominion Power:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nDominion (NYSE: D) today said it plans to close and decommission its Kewaunee Power Station in Carlton, Wis., after the company was unable to find a buyer for the 556-megawatt nuclear facility.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAccording to Dominion:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nKewaunee, Dominion’s fourth nuclear station, generates 556 megawatts
\nof electricity from its single unit. That’s enough to meet the needs
\nof 140,000 homes.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe station began commercial operation in 1974…\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\n1974?
\nThat’s the same year as
\n
\nPlant Hatch Unit 1<\/a>, on the Altamaha River
\n
\n100 miles from here.<\/a> (Hatch Unit 2 came online
\nin 1978<\/a>.)
\nBut the Hatch reactors were relicensed in 2002
\n
\nextending their lifetimes 20 years out to 2034 and 2038<\/a>, so
\nthey won’t be closing, right?\n<\/p>\n

\nWell, maybe they could.
\nHoward A. Learner wrote for JSOnline 30 October 2012,
\n
\nMarket has spoken in Kewaunee shutdown<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a 20-year operating
\nlicense extension for the Kewaunee plant in February 2011 and then,
\nin April 2011, Dominion put Kewaunee up for sale. Now, Dominion is
\nshutting down the Kewaunee nuclear plant because its operations
\naren’t economical going forward.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe market has spoken, and policy-makers should listen to and learn
\nfrom that message.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWhy did the market speak?\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nDominion says its decision was based on dollars and sense. Nuclear
\npower plant operations and retrofits are economically challenging
\ntoday because growing supplies of competing cheap natural gas and
\nzero fuel cost wind power are holding down electricity prices while
\ndemand stays flat.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat plus
\nsolar power already beats gas<\/a>,
\nalthough thus far energy utilities are trying to ignore that because
\nthey like big baseload power plants.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nBut watch what happens
\n
\nas Moore’s Law ramps down price so far it can’t be ignored,<\/a>
\npushing solar deployment up past everything else.
\nAlready
\n
\nin September 2012 all new energy plants in the U.S. were wind or solar<\/a>.
\nAs I mentioned in November:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nNew wind is up 25% Jan-Sep 2012 over the same period last year, and
\n
\n<\/a>
\nnew solar is up 78%.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor comparison, new coal is up 22%, new natural gas is down 50%, and
\nnew oil electrical generation is down 90%. Last year solar accounted
\nfor only 70% more new megawatts than biomass; this year it was 170%.
\nLast year wind and solar combined added twice as many megawatts as
\ncoal; this year more than that (2.29 times or 129%). Last year wind
\n+ sun accounted for only 40% as much new generation as natural gas;
\nthis year 109%. So wind increased faster than any
\nchemical-fuel-burning energy generation method, and solar increased
\nfaster than that. This continues the long-term trend of solar prices
\ngoing down and solar deployment going up.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nBut some energy executives aren’t getting the market’s message,
\nas Learner noted:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nWisconsin Energy Corp. chief executive Gale Klappa is arguing
\npublicly that new nuclear plants are needed to supply power for
\nWisconsin starting in 2020. What’s going on here?\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Kewaunee shutdown decision injects economic reality into the
\npublic policy debate. Does Klappa intend to put his own
\nshareholders’ money at risk for building an expensive new nuclear
\nplant, or would his board of directors only approve this plan if the
\nrisks were shifted to “other people’s money”\u2014namely, consumers
\nand taxpayers?\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nOh, like Southern Company and Georgia Power have done with
\n
\nthe Plant Vogtle boondoggle<\/a>
\nthree-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool whose legs are
\na stealth tax on Georgia Power bills, PSC approval of cost overruns, and an $8.33 billion federal loan guarantee?\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>
\n
\nWe already knew SO and Georgia Power went way over budget last time,
\nthirty years ago when nuclear reactors had no wind or solar competition.<\/a>
\nNow we do have wind and solar power to turn to, and
\n
\nwe could have already built more solar and wind power with
\nthat $8.3 billion loan guarantee, on budget and on time,<\/a>
\nthan Vogtle units 3 and 4 will every produce even if they’re ever built.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nWhy do we, the people of Georgia,
\n
\nlet the PSC<\/a> and the legislature
\ncontinue to charge us through the nose (more than $1.5 billion so far)
\nand load us and our children up with debt for that white elephant,
\nthat IBM 360 in a smartphone age,
\nthat Titanic in a personal drone age,
\nthat nuclear power plant in a rooftop solar age?\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>
\nWhy are we betting on the Chicago Cubs<\/strike> 1919 Black Sox of nuclear power against
\nthe Atlanta Braves of solar power?
\nWhy are we betting on Bainbridge against Valdosta in high school football?
\nNo offense, Bainbridge;
\n
\nDecatur County is negotiating on a 100 acre solar park,<\/a>
\nBut that isn’t going to get anywhere without a Power Purchase Agreement,
\nand Georgia Power gets to dole those out while pouring money down
\nthat bottomless pit by the Savannah River.
\nUntil we the people of Georgia say enough!
\nMust we wait for Moore’s Law to make solar even more cost-effective
\nthan nuclear?
\nWhy not just shut the Vogtle boondoggle down now,
\nget that 1973 territoriality law
\nout of the way, and get on with solar and wind power for jobs,
\nenergy independence, and clean air and water?\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n

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

Dominion Power is shutting down a nuke because it can’t compete economically. Why are we letting Georgia Power charge us up front and load us up with debt to build a nuke we already know can’t compete economically? After all, if it could, it wouldn’t need three-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool that we the rate-payers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,14,70,8,18,2,104,21,22,32,73,289,74,3],"tags":[8736,1068,1043,1044,1045,628,8704,8728,1067,1046,1069,8701,8708,8699,627,8702,12,7,1047,562,117,8737,118,8711,8712,8715,314,8713,8813,8731,8758,8732,8714,8700,6,8716,629],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-ethics","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-safety","category-science","category-security","category-transparency","tag-activism","tag-baseball","tag-compliance","tag-control","tag-distributed-participation","tag-dominion","tag-economy","tag-ethics","tag-football","tag-forensics","tag-fuel","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-kewaunee","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-measurement","tag-natural-gas","tag-nrc","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-regulatory-commission","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-reactor","tag-renewable-energy","tag-retirement","tag-safety","tag-science","tag-security","tag-solar","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-wind","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","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=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}