Box Scores
- Southern, Vogtle, and Westinghouse advance in standings
- Rowe 1, Nukes 0
- TVA 1, Zombies 0
There was good news and bad this week in the field of nuclear energy, at least in the U.S. The good news is that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission pushed out the final safety evaluation reports not only for the licenses to build and operate four new reactors, but also for the reactor design for them.
The reactor projects are Southern's Vogtle site in Georgia and Scana's V.C. Summer station in South Carolina. Both projects referenced the Westinghouse 1,100 MW AP1000 light water reactor.
The bad news is that Exelon CEO John Rowe delivered another of his "no profits in new nuclear" speeches.
One final piece of good news is that the Tennessee Valley Authority, which does not depend on the merchant model, decided to proceed with completion of construction of the 1,260 MW Bellefonte nuclear reactor in northern Alabama.
Anti-nuclear groups labeled Bellefonte a “zombie plant,” and dressed up in theatrical makeup to add emphasis to their cause, but the TVA board banned costumed speakers from its meeting. The board’s unanimous vote should be a confidence builder for anyone following the plant’s progress.
Read the complete carnival at ANS Nuclear Cafe online now.
# # #
1 comment:
Some background information regarding the scoreboard:
1. Rowe's speech applied to deregulated utilities such as EXELON and the utilities in Texas.
2. The six (including Bellefonte now) active new nukes are being build by regulated utilities, either investor-owned utilities (Southern, SCANA) regulated by state public utility commissions, or public-owned utilities (TVA, Santee Cooper) who regulated themselves.
Post a Comment