"They Promised This Time it Would be Different!" NUKES

[KoKo]

Predictions Realized: With Taxpayers on the Hook, Cost of US Nuclear Plants Soar
Delays and overruns at three nuclear projects could cost $2 billion




"They promised us this time it would be different. They were going to streamline it; they were going to get it organized in advance so that it would go smoothly," said Mark Cooper, a senior research fellow for economic analysis at the Vermont Law School's energy and environment institute.[/b

The AP's review of pending projects found:

1) Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia, initially estimated to cost $14 billion, has run into over $800 million in extra charges related to licensing delays. A state monitor has said bluntly that co-owner Southern Co. can't stick to its budget. The plant, whose first reactor was supposed to be operational by April 2016, is now delayed seven months.

2) The long-mothballed Watts Bar power plant in eastern Tennessee, initially budgeted at $2.5 billion, will cost up to $2 billion more, the Tennessee Valley Authority concluded this spring. The utility said its initial budget underestimated how much work was needed to finish the plant and wasted money by not completing more design work before starting construction. The project had been targeted to finish in 2012, but has been postponed until 2015.

3)Plant Summer in South Carolina, expected to cost around $10.5 billion, has seen costs jump by $670 million. A deadline to put the first new reactor online has been delayed from 2016 to 2017; the second reactor is now eight months ahead of schedule, targeted for early 2018.

Earlier this year, US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), along with Taxpayers for Common Sense president Ryan Alexander, wrote: "without federal liability insurance and loan guarantees, no one would ever build a new nuclear plant. Whether you support nuclear energy or not, we should all be able to agree that with record debt, we cannot afford to continue to subsidise this mature industry and its multibillion-dollar corporations."

MUCH MORE...at:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/13-3