{"id":4492,"date":"2013-07-04T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=4492"},"modified":"2013-07-04T04:51:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T08:51:53","slug":"why-are-you-gambling-on-nuclear-instead-of-solar-gloria-tatum-so-2013-05-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/why-are-you-gambling-on-nuclear-instead-of-solar-gloria-tatum-so-2013-05-22.html","title":{"rendered":"Why are you gambling on nuclear instead of solar? –Gloria Tatum @ SO 2013-05-22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nWhy is SO gambling our health and dollars on Plant Vogtle\r\nwhen Georgia Power could be getting on with solar power?\r\nSO CEO Tom Fanning avoided the first part of Gloria Tatum’s question\r\nby simply denying it, and danced around the second part by saying\r\nthe rate hike for Plant Vogtle’s cost overruns would only be\r\n6 to 8 percent, not 12 percent.\r\nDo you want to pay 6 or 8 percent more for a radioactive white elephant\r\nwhen you could be getting power from the sun for less?\r\n

\r\nThe floor person at the\r\n\r\n22 May 2013 Southern Company Stockholder Meeting<\/a>\r\nintroduced Gloria Tatum with 164 shares, representing Nuclear\r\nWatch South, and the SO CEO insisted\r\n

\r\nTF: Call me Tom. Gee whiz.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Gloria<\/a>\r\nGT: Tom. Hi,Tom. It’s great to be here on this beautiful day.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nTF: Thank you. Yes ma’am.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nGT: And I know Southern Company’s done many wonderful things, but I want\r\nto point out a few things to you today.\r\n

\r\nFirst, you know, after the\r\nFukushima meltdown, TEPCO’s $50 billion nuclear complex became a\r\nworthless liability. The deadly radiation still circles the planet,\r\npolluting the earth and increasing cancer. Other countries have\r\nabandoned their nuclear and they’re looking to renewable, but\r\nSouthern Company’s affiliate, Georgia Power, continues construction\r\non two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Now Shell Bluff is a\r\ncommunity down the stream from Plant Vogtle and it has experienced a\r\n25 percent increase in cancer since Vogtle 1 and 2 have been built.\r\n

\r\nAnother problem with Vogtle that lots of us are having a problem\r\nwith is that, in order to build these new reactors, Georgia Power\r\ncustomers are forced to pay an unfair Construction Work in Progress\r\ntax that shifts the financial burden from Georgia Power to the rate\r\npayers and this is especially harmful to senior citizens, like\r\nmyself, and low-income people who are now subsidizing nuclear. I\r\nthink it’s time — I know that you are beginning to go into\r\nsolar and wind but I believe it’s only about 1 percent — but\r\nit’s a beginning — but it’s time to abandon risky nuclear and\r\nthe unfair CWIP tax.\r\n

\r\nEvery year Georgia receives the equivalent of\r\n1.3 billion barrels of oil from the sun in the form of solar energy.\r\nGeorgia has the fifth-highest potential of any state in the country\r\nto produce solar energy. Solar does not produce radioactive waste\r\nnor release tritium into the environment like Plant Vogtle, which\r\ncan cause birth defects and cancer. And even on a cloudy day, you\r\nstill receive solar energy.\r\n

\r\nMr. Fleming — Fanning, excuse me.\r\n\r\n\"Why<\/a>\r\nSorry. Tom, Tom, Tom and gentlemen and ladies, why are you gambling\r\nthe company’s future and the health of their environment and their\r\ncitizens on antiquated, dangerous and very expensive nuclear energy,\r\nwhen the Southeast is an untapped gold mine of safe, clean and cheap\r\nsolar energy. If Germany — which is a much colder country\r\n— can meet half of their energy needs from solar in just a few\r\nyears, why can’t Georgia?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nTF:\r\nWow. There’s a lot of questions in that one. Let me go through just\r\na few — thank you very much. I appreciate it. Let’s go through\r\na few of them.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"The<\/a>\r\nThe first one you — the community you\r\nmentioned, there’s been lots of studies about any connection between\r\ncancers rates and Plant Vogtle. And, ma’am, with all due respect,\r\nthere is no connection there. That has been evaluated thoroughly.\r\n

\r\nNumber two, Fukushima. The board here serves your-all’s interest\r\nexceedingly well. I remember when the earthquake hit, I called the\r\nboard up and we did an emergency informational meeting. We didn’t\r\n\r\n\"The<\/a>\r\nknow what was happening at Fukushima and the tsunami was just\r\ngetting ready to come but we did say to each other, this was a big\r\ndeal, we need to be on top of it. So I can tell you that we were\r\n“hands on the wheel” when that event was unfolding. And\r\nof course, as we saw what happened, it was a disaster at Fukushima.\r\nAs the tsunami came in and took out all the external power sources\r\n— including the onsite diesel backup capability and therefore\r\nthe pumps didn’t run, the pipes didn’t work, the water didn’t get to\r\nwhere it needed to be —\r\nand that’s where you had the disaster unfold at Fukushima.\r\n\r\n\"A<\/a>\r\n

\r\nOf course, as with that event and the weeks that followed, our hearts,\r\nour prayers, our offers to help went out to those folks and we were\r\nvery instrumental as an industry in helping Japan get back on its\r\nfeet.\r\n\r\n\"Back<\/a>\r\n

\r\nAs you correctly mentioned, a lot of people in Europe tended\r\nto, I think, run scared from nuclear. I think that is poor policy\r\nand I’m not sure, you know, for the benefit of America, I don’t want\r\nto use Europe as any of my models.\r\n

\r\nHere is an interesting point,\r\nthough. When you consider that there are about 67 or so active, new\r\nnuclear construction projects going on around the world, I think the\r\nworld in terms of its reliance on nuclear power as a clean, safe,\r\naffordable solution for this world’s energy future is, in fact,\r\nsomething that we need to pursue. And in fact, the United States is\r\nprobably following what’s going on elsewhere in the world. Southern\r\nCompany is proud to be a leader in the United States, however, in\r\nmaking that nuclear renaissance come to fruition.\r\n

\r\nAnd let’s\r\n\r\n\"220<\/a>\r\ndifferentiate Vogtle 3 and 4 from Fukushima, if I could. First of\r\nall, we are not in any way exposed to the flooding that Fukushima\r\nwas. Fukushima is on a coastline. In fact, the diesel generators\r\nwere right there as the waves came in on the tsunami. We’re some 130\r\nmiles inland and 220 feet above sea level and we’ve evaluated all\r\nsorts of disasters, including three damn breaks upriver plus a\r\nhurricane all at the same time — no exposure.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Earthquake<\/a>\r\nSecond, we have\r\nthe blessing of having a quiet geology. We are not exposed to the\r\nseismic risks that certainly Japan is.\r\n

\r\nAnd then thirdly — and\r\nperhaps most importantly — I just happen to have my coffee cup\r\nup here. The technology of Fukushima is old nuclear technology.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nHe didn’t mention\r\nFukushima is the same technology as Plant Hatch 1 and 2,\r\nboth operated by Southern Company.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Water<\/a>\r\nThe\r\ntechnology we’re deploying at Vogtle 3 and 4 is the newest, safest\r\ntechnology on the planet today. And essentially, what you have is\r\nthe nuclear reactor right here — the water sits right above\r\nthe reactor essentially like this — so that in the event of a\r\ndisaster, Newton’s Law works; gravity sends water where it needs to\r\nbe. We don’t have to rely on external power sources in order to get\r\nthe water to the most important areas of the plants. So the —\r\nin fact, the whole design is called the Westinghouse AP1000. AP\r\nstands for advanced passive. 70 percent fewer pumps, valves and\r\npipes. So we think Vogtle is going to be great.\r\n

\r\nNow let’s go through\r\nthe economics of Vogtle, right. It is emissionless, number one.\r\nNumber two, when we think about the price of Vogtle and you talked\r\nabout CWIP. Not to pick, but CWIP isn’t a tax; it’s a way to recover\r\ncosts over time.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nLet’s see,\r\n

    \r\n
  1. Vogtle 1 and 2, like Hatch 1 and 2, \r\nleak radioactive tritium<\/a>,\r\nso they’re not emissionless.\r\nSolar and wind are actually emissionless, plus they require no fuel.\r\n
  2. CWIP is a collection of funds by a public utility\r\nmandated by state law for use in building a facility that\r\nSO insists is of public benefit.\r\n<\/ol>\r\nMerriam-Webster’s\r\n\r\ndefinition of a tax:<\/a>\r\n
    \r\na charge usually of money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes \r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nDictionary.com has\r\n\r\na slightly more elaborate definition:<\/a>\r\n

    \r\na sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc. \r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nThe only way in which CWIP might not qualify as a tax is it’s not\r\ncollected directly by a government.\r\nIt is, however, demanded by a government through state law, is\r\nfor specific facilities, and is levied upon sales.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nBack to Tom Fanning:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nRemember I said that building Vogtle takes about 10\r\nyears, okay. So we need some sort of cash flow over those 10 years\r\nin order to keep, you know, the credit and the financial integrity\r\nof the company sustainable and to help reduce the costs over time.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nAnd you probably wouldn’t for building similar amounts of solar\r\nand wind power, considering that\r\n\r\nGoogle already installed<\/a> almost as much wind and solar as\r\nVogtle 3 and 4 are supposed to produce,\r\nfor about as much as the Vogtle cost overruns so far,\r\ndid it on-time and on-budget, and in much less than ten years.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"Original<\/a>\r\nWhen we originally got Vogtle certified by the Georgia Public\r\nService Commission, the original price increase was thought to be\r\nabout 12 percent. With a variety of benefits that have accrued to\r\nthe credit of Georgia Power’s customers — over $2 billion\r\n— we evaluate that even with the recent schedule change that\r\nwe’ve made, we think that the net price\r\nincrease to Georgia Power’s customers is not going to be 12 percent,\r\n\r\n\"Only<\/a>\r\nbut somewhere between 6 percent to 8 percent. In fact, the net price\r\nhas come down. My sense is this is going to be a technology that\r\nserves our interests exceedingly well for decades to come. Next\r\nquestion.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nIs that your sense, as well, dear readers?\r\nWhat are these “variety of benefits that have accrued to\r\nthe credit of Georgia Power’s customers”?\r\nThe “recent schedule change” is\r\n\r\n19 months late and about a billion dollars over budget<\/a>.\r\nHow about we call the whole thing off and build solar and wind instead?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nThanks to Southern Company for putting up a\r\n\r\ntranscript<\/a> which,\r\nwhile like all transcripts isn’t always 100% accurate\r\n(I’ve made some corrections such as “a mission list” to “emissionless” and added paragraph breaks),\r\nmakes blogging a lot easier.\r\n\r\nSO’s video<\/a> is still in opaque brightcove format that,\r\nunlike YouTube or Vimeo, doesn’t permit linking to specific times,\r\nso you’ll have to manually scan to \r\n55 minutes and 12 seconds to see Gloria Tatum speak.\r\nAll stills here are from SO’s video, taken by me as fair use.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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