POWER November 2012 - 43

NUCLEAR POWER
the March 2011 accident, nuclear supplied
26% of the country's electricity. Long-term
plans had been in place to raise that contribution
to 53% by 2030.
Higher Costs and Delayed Starts
Closer to home, the first new nuclear plants
in the U.S. in years are costing more to build
than first thought and are experiencing construction
delays that are pushing back their
projected in-service dates. Some plans for
new reactors have been scrapped altogether.
For example, NRG Energy wrote off a $481
million investment in two planned reactors in
Texas shortly after the 2011 Fukushima accident,
citing uncertainties.
The Associated Press reviewed public records
and regulatory findings and said licensing
delay charges, rising construction costs,
and construction errors are driving up the
costs of reactors in Georgia, South Carolina,
and Tennessee anywhere from hundreds of
millions of dollars to as much as $2 billion.
Some of the news agency's reporting focused
on work at the Vogtle, V.C. Summer, and
Watts Bar stations:
■ Plant Vogtle. The Associated Press reported
that the Georgia Power-led Vogtle project,
initially estimated to cost $14 billion,
has run into more than $800 million in extra
charges related to licensing delays. A
construction monitor hired by state regulatory
authorities has said that co-owner
Southern Co. is having trouble holding to
its budget. The plant, whose first reactor
was supposed to be operational by April
2016, is now delayed seven months (Figure
1). Southern Co. and others say cost
overruns are to be expected in projects
this complex, and that overruns are balanced
by other savings over the life of the
plant. Southern Co. expects Plant Vogtle
will cost $2 billion less to operate over its
60-year lifetime than initially projected
because of tax breaks and historically low
interest rates.
■ V.C. Summer Nuclear Station. This South
Carolina reactor was expected to cost
around $10.5 billion but has experienced
cost increases of around $670 million, the
news agency said. Owners say the project
remains on or under budget, helped by favorable
interest rates and labor costs that
are lower than expected. The first reactor's
in-service date has been delayed from
2016 to 2017; the second reactor reportedly
is eight months ahead of schedule with
an in-service date targeted for early 2018.
■ Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Completing
work on the long-mothballed Watts Bar
plant in eastern Tennessee, initially budgeted
at $2.5 billion, will cost up to $2 bilNovember
2012 | POWER
lion more, the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) said this past spring. The utility
said its initial budget underestimated how
much work was needed to finish the plant,
and the utility wasted money by not completing
more design work before starting
construction. The project had been targeted
to finish this year but has been postponed
until 2015.
Another utility in line to build, Progress
Energy-which completed its merger with
Duke Energy this summer-pushed back
construction plans for two reactors in Florida
because of economic uncertainty, low demand
growth, and inexpensive natural gas for
power generation. Progress now expects its
first new reactor to be finished in 2024.
Those projects include Ameren Corp.'s bid
for a 20-year license renewal at its Callaway
plant in central Missouri, a renewal request
by the Calvert Cliffs power plant in Maryland,
and a request by Florida Power & Light
to build two reactors at its Turkey Point nuclear
plant south of Miami.
Some two dozen environmental groups
sought the delay after a federal appeals
court ruled in June that the NRC's plans for
long-term storage of SNF at individual reactors
were insufficient. The ruling came in
response to a lawsuit by attorneys generals
in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and
Vermont over a relicensing application for
the Indian Point nuclear plant. The federal
appeals court found that spent nuclear fuel
rods stored onsite at power plants " pose a
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in early August put a hold on requests
for new reactor construction and license
renewals.
Meanwhile, Progress faces problems with
its existing Crystal River nuclear plant. The
reactor went offline in September 2009 for
maintenance and upgrades, but the plant's
42-inch-thick concrete containment building
cracked during the outage. Efforts to repair
the damage cost $500 million and resulted in
more cracks. Repairing the new cracks was
first estimated to cost another $900 million
to $1.3 billion, plus more than $1 billion for
replacement power.
In early August, Duke Energy CEO Jim
Rogers said the previous high-end estimate
of $1.3 billion is likely too low. The utility
has not decided whether to repair the plant
or permanently shut it down. An independent
technical evaluation commissioned by
Duke's board was expected to be completed
in early September, Rogers told a local
newspaper. " The cost estimate is trending
higher, " Rogers was quoted as saying. " The
repair plan appears to be technically feasible
but issues remain. "
Spent Fuel Storage Dilemma
Further complicating new nuclear's outlook,
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) in early August put a hold on
requests for new reactor construction and
license renewals after a federal court ruling
questioned the agency's plans for storing
spent nuclear fuel (SNF).
The NRC's moratorium will delay almost
20 requests by utilities for new construction
and operating licenses or license renewals.
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dangerous, long-term health and environmental
risk. "
The NRC sought for decades to build a national
waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in
the Nevada desert, but that plan was scrapped
two years ago by the Obama administration.
A decision in August offered good news
to North America's nuclear industry when
Canadian nuclear regulators issued a site
preparation license to Ontario Power Generation
(OPG) for new reactors proposed at the
Darlington site in Ontario. The license was
the first to be issued in Canada in 25 years
and will be valid for 10 years. It means that
preconstruction activities such as clearing,
excavating, and grading the land adjacent to
the company's existing four-unit Darlington
station can begin.
Two potential vendors are preparing detailed
construction plans, schedules, and
cost estimates under service agreements
signed with OPG in June. SNC Lavalin/
Candu Energy Inc. and Westinghouse have
a year to complete their reports for the Enhanced
Candu 6 and AP1000 reactor designs
respectively. The reports will be submitted
to the Ontario provincial government,
which will decide whether to move forward
with the project.
Planned Reactor Construction
The U.S. currently has 104 operating nuclear
reactors at 64 plants across the country.
Around half of those units are more than 30
years old. The Nuclear Energy Institute says
43
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POWER November 2012

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