Nuclear Swan Song

CanaryMedia: "Georgia's big new nuclear reactors could be the last built in the US" Vogtle 3 is one of a pair of 1,100-megawatt nuclear reactors nearing end of construction in the state of Georgia. Vogtle 1 + 2 have been in operation for several decades, but the two new reactors Vogtle 3 + 4 are arriving 6 yrs overdue + will cost utility customer well north of $30 billion, more than double the original $14 billion projected. And we as taxpayers are footing the bill for the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office [which] provided about $12 billion in loan guarantees to help complete the project against a backdrop of spending freezes and lawsuits. "The Vogtle expansion entails installing two AP1000 pressurized-water reactors from Westinghouse — the first deployment of that model in the U.S." China already has 4 of these in operation + four more under construction. For the U.S. these may be the last 2 big reactors ever built for a long time, if ever. The industry is turning its attention to 'small modular reactors (SMRs) under development [which] face a raft of economic, regulatory, technological and temporal risks.' The advanced reactor closest to market in the U.S. is being developed by NuScale, which has a nonbinding agreement to build a first-of-its-kind SMR project in Idaho. "Company has already raised its projected power cost from $58 per megawatt-hour to $89, even though it’s still years away from even beginning construction." This translates to 5.8¢ per kWh ramping up to 8.9¢ per kWh. Contrast that to the current retail residential electricity rate of about 15¢ per kWh. Would somebody please explain to me how NuScale anticipates bidding into a competitive electricity market where new solar + wind projects are already bidding in at 2-3¢ per kWh? The only possible answer is ongoing state + federal subsidies. #nuclearenergy  #climatechange