Nuclear Update: Singing the Nuclear Blues Down South

It’s only one-third built and many of its prospective customers have already been billed for 3.7% rate increases two years in a row to pay for it. Its main components’ manufacturer has declared bankruptcy. The majority owner of the $14 billion (at last count, and rising) project says that they’re not sure that they can afford to finish it.

Can you say “horrendous economic boondoggle?” It’s also pronounced “another bad investment in nuclear power.”

The utility that’s building two new nuclear units in South Carolina told state regulators last week that the project may be abandoned. Project executives also reported that they already know at least another $1.5 billion in cost overruns would be needed to complete it.

How many more billion dollars will regulators require electric customers to pour down this rathole? We shudder to ask.

Meanwhile, just over South Carolina’s southern border in Georgia, public subsidies for the stalled Vogtle nuclear plant have made a late appearance in a high-profile Congressional election. In the special election to replace Trump cabinet member Tom Price, the ultraconservative group Club for Growth has launched an ad attacking a Republican candidate as a high-spending tax-hiker. Why? It’s because he voted for the state law which allows customers to be charged for the costs of a power plant still under construction (and regardless of whether it’s ever finished). North Carolina politicians should take note: many current and former state legislators here have the same stain on their own record.

PS: There’s still no approved plan for the permanent storage or “disposal” of the many tons of highly radioactive waste from existing reactors, which will remain deadly for longer than the duration to date of recorded human history.

Next, NC Senate finally confirms Governor Cooper’s DEQ, DNCR Secretaries >>