This thread is making me even more pro-nuclear, but I’m also thinking we need to re-think this model of “large power plants in the boonies and large networks of high voltage wires”.
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You are being lied to by the nuclear power salesman. He uses smoke and mirrors to make it seem like Vogtle 3&4 will provide cheap electricity. He tells you that Vogtle 1&2 nuclear plants are generating cheap electricity. But he does not tell you that they were built a long time ago (starting in 1976 and finished in 1989) for half the cost of Vogtle 3&4. The construction cost of Vogtle 1&2 have been paid off in the 33 years of operation by the rate payers. Therefore, these with plants are now generating electricity more cheaply with no loan payments.
Now he tells you that Vogtle 3&4 will also generate cheap electricity. But that is not true - there is a very large construction debt to be paid by the ratepayers for the next 40 years.
Anyone with an ounce of economics knowledge understands the above.
Anyone with an ounce of energy economics knows that new nuclear power plants like Vogtle 3&4 are not cheap and will not generate cheap electricity. That is why utilities for the last 10 years have invested in the more economical power generation technologies like natural gas and renewable power plants. Many nuclear power plant plans were cancelled in the last 10 years. Plans for new coal fired power plants were also cancelled.
The R&D worked being done on small modular reactor (SMR) designs is geared to eliminate the high cost of building the large Vogtle 3&4 reactor plants. However, there are no prototype SMR plants completed for testing and design confirmation. SMR are still 10 years away from commercialization if they prove to be economical to build and operate and cheaper than natural gas and renewable power plants.
Climate change can not afford the cost and time that large nuclear plants take before they generate any electricity. Vogtle 3&4 cost and schedule would have resulted in 10 times more renewable power plants in half the time.
Jaak
P.S. - Please read what several Georgia Representatives have proposed as House Resolution 1169 to protect Georgia ratepayers from the Vogtle 3 & 4 construction disaster in the following link:
https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20212022/2…