{"id":249,"date":"2012-12-19T13:36:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T18:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/15-month-delay-for-new-plant-vogtle-nukes-state-inspector-at-psc.html"},"modified":"2012-12-19T13:36:42","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T18:36:42","slug":"15-month-delay-for-new-plant-vogtle-nukes-state-inspector-at-psc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/15-month-delay-for-new-plant-vogtle-nukes-state-inspector-at-psc.html","title":{"rendered":"15 month delay for new Plant Vogtle nukes —state inspector at PSC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\n<\/a>\nSouthern Company's new nukes are delayed at least fifteen months,\nat least a billion over budget and rising,\nand not organized to meet safety filing requirements,\nyet the Georgia PSC yesterday\nlet SO pass the buck to contractors and Georgia Power\ncontinue charging customers for that boondoggle,\ndespite 40 to 1 opposition from attendees.\n<\/p>\n

\nEllen Reinhardt wrote for GPB News yesterday,\n\nPlant Vogtle Construction Costs Rising<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nAn independent auditor told utility regulators Plant Vogtle\nconstruction will be delayed at least 15 months and go millions of\ndollars over budget.\n<\/p>\n

\nNuclear engineer William Jacobs said poor construction material,\ncontractor mistakes and oversight delays will mean the Unit 3\nreactor won't be ready until July of 2017.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat's 15 months later than planned.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSurprise!\n\n\"From<\/a>\nWho could have expected that, given that back in the 1970s and\n1980s\n\ncosts blew up 26 times the original estimate.<\/a>\nBack then SO complained about paperwork after Three Mile Island.\nThey're trying that same excuse now,\nbut even a former Commissioner-turned-lobbyist is incredulous,\nas Kristi Swartz reported for the AJC yesterday,\n\nMonitor: Paperwork problems a drag on Vogtle schedule<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\u201cIt's taken eight months to handle paperwork\ndeficiencies?\u201d asked Bobby Baker, a former PSC commissioner\nwho now represents Resource Supply Management, an energy consultant\nthat works with large commercial, institutional and industrial\nelectric customers.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nA current Commissioner was almost as incredulous:\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\n\u201cDo you know how difficult it would be to stand in front of\nratepayers and voters and to say the reason this project is over\nbudget is because of paperwork?\u201d asked PSC Chairman Tim Echols.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nReinhardt's story says Echols nonetheless made excuses:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nRatepayers like Miklethun are already paying for current\nconstruction costs in their monthly bills. Commission Chair Tim\nEchols points out that despite the construction delays, Georgia\nPower has not asked to increase customer rates again.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nGeorgia Power didn't asked for another rate increase this time because\n\nthey just got a rate increase approved last month!<\/a>\nAfter\n\nPSC rubberstamped previous cost overruns in August.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\u201cIn the long run we will be very glad we built this plant when\nnatural gas prices go up in 15 or 20 or 30 years. And all these\nother states have all their eggs in this natural gas basket. And\nthen Georgia has these reactors sitting there producing low cost\nenergy.\u201dhe says.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat shows how serious Echols is in his professed\nsupport of solar power:<\/a> not very serious at all.\n\n<\/a>\nMoore's Law\n\nwill drive solar costs even further below nuclear,<\/a> coal, oil, gas,\nand even wind.\nIn even 15 years we will be very sad if we we're still paying on\nthat nuclear white elephant (completed or not)\nwhen most of our power is from solar energy by then, despite\nobstructionism meanwhile from Georgia Power and Southern Company,\nand spinelessness from the Georgia PSC.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nCommissioner Doug Everett asked the key question:\n<\/p>\n

\n

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

\nUnfortunately, the PSC accepted inspector Jacobs' answer:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\u201cAt this point, continue with the project.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nEven though the inspector said the project was not organized well enough, as\nJonathan Shapiro wrote for WABE yesterday,\n\nState Inspector: Nuclear Project Delayed Further, Contractor Performance To Blame<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nHe [Jacobs] added it remained difficult to pin down an exact\ntime frame because Georgia Power and its contractors have yet to\nestablish an updated long-term schedule.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe project must have an agreed-upon and fully developed\nintegrated project schedule. You can't run a project of this\nmagnitude, this complexity without that type of schedule,\u201d\nsaid Jacobs.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nOnly two people who spoke for continuing these new nukes.\nOne of them was\n\nJames H. Rust of the Heartland Institute<\/a>, which brags about\n\nits ties to ALEC<\/a>,\nand which\n\nhas been criticised by an editorial in Nature (Nature\n475,\n423-424\n(28 July 2011)\ndoi:10.1038\/475423b\nPublished online\n27 July 2011 )<\/a>,\n"the Heartland Institute and its ilk are not trying to build a theory\nof anything. They have set the bar much lower, and are happy muddying\nthe waters."\nEven Heartland Institute's Rust admits:\n<\/p>\n

\nAbout 80 individuals were in attendance at the hearings and with the\nexception of one other speaker, all speakers requested Georgia Power\nCompany stop construction of the nuclear power plants.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n80 to 2;\nthat's a clue, PSC,\nespecially when one of the two represents a climate denying institute.\nYes, it's past time to stop this boondoggle now.\n<\/p>\n

\nShapiro's article concludes:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Public Service Commission will vote whether to approve Georgia\nPower's latest round of spending on the nuclear expansion project\nFebruary 19th.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nI believe they also meet again in January\n(3 Jan 2013,\n5 Feb, and 19 Feb,<\/a>\nplus Energy Committee meetings 27 Dec, 10 Jan, 31 Jan and 14 Jan).\nYou can protest\n\ndirectly to Georgia Power about that CWIP stealth tax on your bill.<\/a>\nOr you can contact\n\nthe GA PSC or the state legislature.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p><\/blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southern Company's new nukes are delayed at least fifteen months, at least a billion over budget and rising, and not organized to meet safety filing requirements, yet the Georgia PSC yesterday let SO pass the buck to contractors and Georgia Power continue charging customers for that boondoggle, despite 40 to 1 opposition from attendees. Ellen […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[142,14,17,8,18,2,19,104,21],"tags":[1089,712,28,8746,1087,8704,8707,8701,8708,8699,8709,8702,753,12,7,25,8737,380,8711,107,220,108,902,1088,6,1090],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cwip","category-economy","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-history","category-nuclear","category-planning","tag-bobby-baker","tag-boondoggle","tag-cost","tag-cwip","tag-doug-everett","tag-economy","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-legislature","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-moores-law","tag-nuclear","tag-overrun","tag-planning","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-regulatory-capture","tag-southern-company","tag-three-mile-island","tag-tim-echols","tag-valdosta","tag-william-jacobs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-41","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","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=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}