During yesterday’s day-long hearing before the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) on the 13thsemi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring report, expert witnesses on behalf of the PSC predicted that additional delays beyond the current 39-month delay are likely for the two nuclear reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia along the Savannah River. Though five years into the project, only 26 percent of construction is complete.
Nuclear Power
Since the early 1990s, NC WARN has watch-dogged the state’s nuclear power industry over its “low-level” and high-level waste practices, along with reactor safety and security issues.
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More Cost Increases for Delayed Reactors in SC, Georgia — The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Just a week before Georgia Power witnesses are set to testify before the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) on the 13th semi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring report, significant project management changes and major cost increases were announced that will negatively impact customers for the already over budget two nuclear reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro along the Savannah River.
I-Team: Flaw Found in Harris Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Head — ABC 11 News
Duke Energy officials describe the flaw as a small depression in a welding seam. They say the public was never in danger. Critics aren’t so sure.
“The industry has had this problem for a number of years and they haven’t been able to figure out how to prevent it from occurring,” said Jim Warren, with the nuclear watchdog group NC WARN.
Won’t New Nukes Slow Climate Disruption? — NC WARN newsletter
In a recent poll, many US scientists said construction of nuclear power plants would help with climate change. This reflects a major disconnect between scientific expertise and energy and economic realities, at least in most nations. Unfortunately, the predictions by NC WARN and many others, beginning in 2004 when Dick Cheney announced the US nuclear “renaissance,” were entirely on target. We warned that corporations trying to build nuclear plants would waste billions of public dollars and many years while limiting solar, wind and efficiency advances that could help us cut carbon emissions fairly quickly.
Experts warned of nuke work overruns — Atlanta Journal Consitution
The biggest construction project in Georgia is also becoming one of the biggest budget busters in state history. And nearly every Georgian with a monthly electric bill may end up paying for it.
Trigaux: Is Duke Energy’s iron grasp on Tallahassee slipping? — Tampa Bay Times
State legislators, apparently waking from a long winter’s nap, are introducing measures that would crack down on big power companies like Duke Energy Florida that are relentlessly gouging ratepayers.
Germany’s Biggest Utility, E.ON, Is Divesting Fully From Centralized Power Plants — Green Tech Media
Executives from E.ON, Germany’s biggest utility, announced plans today to leave the centralized power business in order to focus exclusively on distributed energy and “empowering customers.”
Trigaux: If you’re not mad at Duke Energy, you’re not paying attention — Tampa Bay Times
In 2014, Duke’s delivered little but calamity, especially in Florida, where customers serve as company punching bags. But even in its home state of North Carolina, Duke fumbled. Now it’s busy downplaying a horrible environmental spill of its own making. A toxic sludge of 39,000 tons of arsenic-laced coal ash and 27,000 gallons of contaminated water now coats nearly 70 miles of the once-scenic Dan River.
German Nuclear Waste May Be Headed to South Carolina Site — The New York Times
The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it will study the environmental risk of importing spent nuclear fuel from Germany that contains highly enriched uranium, a move believed to be the first for the United States.
Strange Bedfellows to Call for Electricity Competition — News Release from NC WARN
In a state where economic, energy and environmental concerns grow more intensely intertwined, the assertive environmental nonprofit group NC WARN is working with the conservative nonprofit John Locke Foundation to sponsor two public forums calling for increased competition in the electricity market.