Nuclear Update: Costly SC Nukes Go Belly Up

Advocates for clean, renewable energy keep telling everyone that wind and solar are the way to go. Increasingly, the pure economics of energy production are delivering the same message.

Case in point: Last week, two South Carolina electric utilities announced that they were abandoning plans to complete the only two nuclear reactors currently under construction in that state. In the process, they declared that it did not make economic sense to pay the billions which would be necessary to complete them, despite the fact that they had already invested roughly $9 billion in their development and construction to date. See here for a summary of what happened.

Analysis and comment by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) is available here.

This becomes the latest major blow to the tottering commercial nuclear power industry in the United States. Huge signs in all caps are everywhere, announcing that new nuclear power construction is simply not an economically viable—or even rational—option. The so-called “nuclear renaissance” is dead, and pouring more public billions down the same rathole won’t help anyone.
Utilities and regulators in North Carolina, take note.

Next, another legislative “special session” spells bad news for environmental protections >>