Economics to hinder future US nuclear growth: ex-NRC chairman

[kristopher]

Klein was NRC chairman from July 2006 to May 2009

Economics to hinder future US nuclear growth: ex-NRC chairman

Houston (Platts)--5Oct2011/332 pm EDT/1932 GMT

Economics -- not post-Fukushima regulatory hurdles -- will hinder future nuclear power additions in the US, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman said Wednesday.

...despite talk of stricter attention being paid to nuclear units worldwide, it will be economic realities that prevent more units from being built in the US, former NRC Chairman Dale Klein said Thursday.

...Any future nuclear additions are taking place and will continue to be in regulated states. It is too difficult to build merchant plants."The economics do not work," Klein said....

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/6557890

And by "regulated states" he is referring to those (usually red) states where the utility is allowed to shift 100% of the economic risk onto either taxpayers or utility ratepayers.

Gov. Haley Barbour: 'We'd love to have another nuclear power plant'
Published: Wednesday, October 05, 2011, 5:29 AM
By George Altman, Washington Bureau


ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Less than six months after a disaster in Japan stoked worldwide fears about nuclear power, the state of Mississippi still believes it is an important source of energy and wants to build a second nuclear plant, Gov. Haley Barbour said.

The Grand Gulf Nuclear Station was delayed for years by litigation from nuclear power skeptics some three decades ago, Barbour told a meeting of elected officials and energy industry leaders on Tuesday. But the Claiborne County community in which the plant is located is now eager for more nuclear development.

"Candidly, we'd love to have another nuclear power plant," Barbour said to the Southern States Energy Board. "We don't have, 'Not in my backyard.' We have, 'Please in my backyard.'"

Barbour was among the three governors, three senators and handful of energy industry officials to speak at the Southern States Energy Board Governors Energy Summit. Participants discussed nuclear energy, oil and gas production and Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Shortly after ...

http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2011/10/gov_haley_barbour_wed_love_to.html

[ixion]

1. I'd like to see nuclear growth brought to negative...

as in shutting down the nuclear plants already built.

[AndyTiedye]

2. This is One Case We Should Let the Free Market Decide

Even the NRC says that nukes can't make it economically.

No more nukes!

[FBaggins]

4. Did you read the article?

It wasn't about how nuclear plants in general don't make economic sense.

It was that in a world of cheap natural gas, nuclear plants don't make economic sense.

So if the free market decides... you get fossil fuel generation. You sure that's what you want?

[kristopher]

6. That isn't true.

Just like the CEO of Exelon, Ex-NRC Commissioner Klein is forced to admit the obvious about the economics of nuclear power - there is simply no way to avoid it considering the industry was supposed to have construction of at least 10 plants well underway in the US by now.

That doesn't mean he isn't shilling for the nuclear industry. The fact is that renewables just edged out natural gas and are now the fastest growing source of new generation in the world; and the slots where they possess a cost advantage continue to expand at an extremely rapid rate.


Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Full Special Report on Renewable Energy
Download here: http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report/IPCC_SRREN_Full_Report
Dial-up warning - 28MB

[FBaggins]

7. Lol! A very convenient double standard you live under there.

You can parse out any statement from its context by creatively deciding when the speaker is either authoritative (read - agrees with kris) or being forced to tell the truth... and when he's still a lying shill for "the industry".

Why... some people can obviously shift from uncomfortable truth to lying without taking a breath! :rofl:

In reality (you should visit... the weather is fine!), he was very clearly saying that nuclear can't compete with natural gas at today's prices.

Unfortunately... renewables can't either. Is that really the only factor you want to consider when building new generation?

[GliderGuider]

3. And as the global economy sinks into a long depression, nuclear power will sink along with it.

I tell you, a multi-decade depression will cure a lot of our ills: less nuclear power, less fossil fuel use, less expansion of human activity into the world's remaining natural habitat, less industrial pollution of the land, air and water, a rapid drop in population growth...

[FBaggins]

5. Sounds like the guy is pretty smart

"The moves by Germany, Switzerland and Italy to back away from nuclear power were "emotional" decisions not based on fact, Klein said.".

Yep.

Furthermore, he took issue with the idea that nuclear power is unsafe compared to other fuel types. People remember nuclear accidents for a long time and will remember Fukushima although no one died from the reactor problems. "If you ask them, 'What was the last coal mine that had an accident and killed people,' you'll get dead silence ... nuclear is just viewed differently," Klein said.

Yep again. Thanks!