| Nuclear power plants; a debate that still rages |
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Where do you stand on the question of nuclear power plants?The Conservative Conservationist By David Holty
The United States hasn’t begun construction of a new nuclear power plant since the last one in 1977, more than 30 years ago. Several projects are under consideration now but they face enormous obstacles. Financing the enormous capital cost has been one problem and is growing larger all the time. The groups that oppose nuclear power, like Greenpeace, are widespread and well organized. Regulatory restrictions and political opposition delay these projects, and make them even more expensive. Security issues add to the costs. Because there is so little real progress the number of potential suppliers has shrunk to a handful—and all that uncertainty has made lenders shy away, or quote outrageous prices for financing. So, it’s almost impossible to get a new nuclear power plant built. Estimates of the potential cost of a new plant in Florida have been in the six to nine billion-dollar range. Investors and lenders hate uncertainty. And, it’s understandable that they would be very hesitant to put lots of cash up front to build a plant when they don’t know how much it would cost and have no idea how they would dispose of the radioactive waste. Nuclear waste disposal Nuclear waste disposal is almost a separate issue here, and its viability is nowhere near settled. There has been progress lately in research toward the reprocessing of radioactive materials to render them less deadly and to recover some of their remaining energy. (For more information Google “PUREX” which stands for Plutonium Uranium Extraction process.) Here’s the point: How do you justify a multi-billion dollar investment when you don’t know what you will be permitted to do with your spent fuel? Yucca Mountain—the underground site in Nevada that has been suggested as a nuclear waste depository—cannot open until all the political wrangling is settled, and that could take many more years. Then it would take another ten years to get the site ready to receive material, and there is already a backlog that would fill the place immediately. Detractors make one other strong argument: storing nuclear waste is not a permanent disposal option. It takes ten thousand years for the radioactivity to decline to safe background levels. So what are the arguments for nuclear that would convince us to surmount all these obstacles and build some more plants? Even some environmentalists have come over to the nuclear camp, convinced that nuclear is the only way to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. Supplies of coal, petroleum and natural gas are limited, and what happens when they are all gone? Nuclear power plants produce electrical energy continuously and the process is clean; it does not produce carbon dioxide and does not contribute to the “greenhouse” effect. Solar and wind energy, however desirable from an environmental consideration, produce electricity intermittently and pose huge logistical problems storing and distributing the power to meet a relatively constant demand. “Ah,” say the nuclear detractors, “but you can’t build enough nuclear plants to make a dent in the carbon footprint of the entire national power industry.” According to the Wall Street Journal, one study three years ago showed that we would have to build 21 new 1000-megawatt nuclear plants each year for the next fifty years in order to stabilize the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that come from coal and gas-fired power plants. Nuclear power in Big Canoe? How does all this affect us here in Big Canoe? We’ve asked that question of Amicolola Electric, which serves the Big Canoe community with electricity. According to Stacey Fields, Amicolola’s Director of Public Relations, “Amicolola EMC purchases a large percentage of its power from Oglethorpe Power Company. (More information can be found on their web site at www.ogc.com by clicking on ‘Powering Georgia.’) What you will learn there is that Oglethorpe is the nation’s largest power supply cooperative, serving 39 Electric Membership Companies (of which Amicolola is one.)
Power Companies operate three different types of generating plants. The biggest plants are the “base” facilities that operate continuously and have the capacity to serve the average demand. The “intermediate” plants run most of the time, but can be shut down during periods of low demand. And, the “peaking” plants, often the least efficient but most versatile, can be started up and shut down quickly and run only when the demand is at its highest. Today most power companies considering an increase in capacity will elect to build a new “peaking” plant because they can get the quickest return for their modest investment. Nuclear plants, because they run all the time and represent by far the highest capital investment, would be in the category of “base” plants. This is another reason why there isn’t more construction activity in the nuclear field today. And, it’s why Big Canoe, which receives about forty percent of its purchased electricity from nuclear generating plants, will probably not see an increase in that number in the near future. |
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