Crystal River nuclear plant repairs to take longer than expected

[bananas]

It's been down since September - and they don't know when it will come back.
Nuclear energy is very variable and has to be backed up by fossil-fuel plants.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/crystal-river-nuclear-plant-repairs-to-take-longer-than-expected/1092923

Crystal River nuclear plant repairs to take longer than expected

By Richard Danielson, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, May 6, 2010

Repairs to the Crystal River nuclear plant will take longer than Progress Energy previously expected.

Instead of coming back online by midyear, the plant is expected to return to service in the third quarter, Progress Energy president and chief executive officer Bill Johnson said Wednesday.

<snip>

Executives said they expect insurance to cover much of the costs of repairs and replacement power needed while the nuclear plant is offline. The utility has other plants, some fired by natural gas, that it can bring online at times of peak demand.

Without going into detail, the company suggested it could seek a rate increase to recoup repair costs not covered by insurance.

So far, however, Progress Energy does not know what the total repair project will cost, it doesn't have a running tab on what replacement power has cost and can't say exactly how much insurance will pay, spokeswoman Wendy Horne said.

The company powered down the nuclear plant in September for a major maintenance project that was expected to be done by the end of December.

But shortly after the job began, workers discovered that part of the containment wall had separated into two layers.

<snip>

[kristopher]

1. It is another instance where only by chance did they find a major defect.

"...in October, workers discovered a crack in the 42-inch (107 cm) thick containment building wall during initial work to replace the steam generators inside."

"In February, the company told state regulators the 838-megawatt unit would likely restart around mid-year. "Now that we're much deeper into the project, we have updated that restart projection to the third quarter," Johnson told analysts this week.

The company has spent $25 million in repair costs through the end of March, according to a Progress presentation."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0620236920100506?type=marketsNews

[madokie]

2. And you can bet your bippy that at some point they won't find one in time

Its only a matter of time before we have a big boom here. They're gonna try to recoup some of the cost from the ratepayers should be all anyone needs to read. Safe, not, Cheap, not. Why of why did we ever let this genie out of the bottle I ask?

[kristopher]

3. I NEVER risk my bippy on bets

It is far too valuable to me; I just don't think I could endure a bippyless existence.

[madokie]

4. Peace

:rofl:

[struggle4progress]

5. This seems to be an intermittent unreliable source of power

[madokie]

6. As they age that seems to be the case

We're wasting time and money on this dead horse called nuclear energy. Nuclear power has been shown that its not the savior in our fight to clean up our air so why are we still even talking about building new ones is beyond me. When it comes right down to it time will tell its been the stupidest thing man has done. Almost as stupid as drilling for oil off the coast in the oceans, not to mention that that it appears that the Italians have been disposing of some of their radioactive waste at sea by way of using the mafia of all entities. That one alone should stop us all dead in our tracks. No Nukes. Only fools and shysters would advocate for more nuclear energy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8257912.stm Mafia 'sank ships of toxic waste'

Just do a google search on the mafia, nuclear waste, ocean and check it out sometime.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/10/2008109174223218644.html Samolia and illegal nuclear waste dumping

Do we really want to add any more nuke plants?

Soon some nukebot will be along telling me how wrong I am, so sad