AP: NRG to Submit First New Nuke Application

[AlecBGreen]

via the The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Power producer NRG Energy Inc. will submit the first application for a new nuclear reactor in the U.S. in nearly 30 years, the company's chief executive said Monday.

Nuclear regulators expect Tuesday morning to receive NRG's application for two new units at its facility in Bay City,Texas, about 90 miles southwest of Houston. It will be the first complete construction and operating license submission the government has processed since before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.

...

Utilities see in nuclear plants an opportunity to affordably meet demand for electricity, which the Energy Information Administration is forecasting will grow by 42 percent by 2030. High natural gas prices and the prospect of taxes or constraints on greenhouse gases are making gas- or coal-fired plants less attractive.

...

"Nuclear is expensive to build, but (post-construction) is one of the cheapest sources of power generation that's out there," Howald said. "Assuming they get it up and running, it's going to be a very, very attractive plant."

The average cost of nuclear-produced electricity was 1.72 cents per kilowatt hour in 2006, compared with 2.37 cents for coal-fired plants and 6.75 cents for natural gas plants, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group.

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Question - Have we been adding reactors to existing plants throughout the last 30 years, or is this the first nuclear plant PERIOD to be built in that time frame?

[madrchsod]

1. there is`t a manufacturing base left in the usa

to make the bits and pieces that make up a nuclear power plant...it is all gone..no they have`t replaced the reactors. a new plant would cost 10+ billion of dollars....

[NNadir]

2. Well that's some good news.

It's taken far too long for this to happen.

[jpak]

3. Thank you Dick Cheney

and your sycophants at the Nuclear Energy Insitute...

http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/

(but..oops..they haven't actually ordered the reactors yet)

[losthills]

4. I'm in a conference call

with Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Bonnie Raitt right now.

*note to self: pick up a new set of guitar strings...

[hunter]

5. Tell them a single payer health plan in the USA would be nice...

"No nukes" seems a bit dirty and old to me, since all it got us was a bunch of filthy, filthy coal plants -- an unintended consequence I'm sure. The road to hell, and all that.

[losthills]

7. Right. Because there's only two ways to generate electricity...

Coal and nuclear are our only two options.
You can't be against one without being for the other.

Come on, man-- you know better than that.

[hunter]

8. Here's a picture I took at Solar One in California more than twenty years ago...

Since that time the U.S. has built a huge number of very large coal fired plants. In comparison the installed capacity of solar is negligible.

The people of Texas will build coal plants if they can't build nuclear plants. They are not going to turn off their air conditioners, close their factories, or stop building new suburbs. They are not going to cut back their energy use and install huge amounts of solar capacity unless coal power plants are banned. When we ban the use of coal, then maybe we can talk about nuclear. Nuclear power is by far the lesser evil. Our corrupt and destructive empire is powered by fossil fuels.

I like to imagine a society that's not so disruptive of the natural environment, one that would be powered by renewable resources, but in my experience opposition to nuclear power has been extremely counterproductive.

The core problems of our society are attributable to our state religion of consumerism and economic productivity. We question the environmental impact of nuclear power plants, but the political powers really don't care about this because coal plants can and will be built if nuclear plants are not. But simple things like cars and trucks and airplanes and shopping centers are beyond question.

[bananas]

6. Good - maybe we can stop this boondoggle. nt