Nuclear Update: State Analysts Say Georgia Nuke Should Be Cancelled

The last new commercial nuclear power plant still under actual construction in the southeast is “uneconomic” and should be cancelled.

That’s the conclusion of analysts appointed by the Georgia Public Service Commission about the troubled Vogtle plant in Augusta, being constructed (with massive taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies) for Georgia Power. (The Public Service Commission is Georgia’s equivalent to the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which regulates power and natural gas company rates, projects, and service.)

The public analysts in Georgia ripped Georgia Power’s management of the construction process and opposed the company’s requests for additional public subsidies for the plant. The Vogtle project is clearly plagued by the same combination of sloppy oversight, poor planning and forecasts, falling power demand, soaring nuclear costs, and falling costs of alternative power sources (including renewables) that have doomed other proposed new nuclear plants.

It’s long past time for even the most stubborn nuclear fanboys in government to get the word that these projects are bad investments for everyone concerned.

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