The Stillborn ‘Nuclear Renaissance’

[kristopher]

<snip>

THE FINNISH GRAVE

Take the case of the Finnish Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant 3, probably the one reactor under construction most referred to as proof of the so-called renaissance of nuclear energy. The facility, which uses the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) technology, authorised in December 2000, was set to start functioning in May 2009.

However, numerous construction setbacks forced the French constructor Areva already in December 2007 to postpone delivery to the summer of 2011. When the setbacks continued, Areva had to announce further delay: On October 2008, Areva announced that the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant could only be delivered in June 2012.

By early September 2009, drastic construction budget excesses -- the construction costs, initially estimated at three billion euros, have jumped to well over five billion, for a preliminary cost surplus of at least 55 percent -- and legal quarrels between Areva and the Finnish Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), which owns and operates the Olkiluoto complex, are threatening the completion of the plant. Now, the plant may actually start operations in 2014.

In late 2009, after several years of troubled cooperation with TVO, Areva threatened to lodge a legal complaint against the Finnish operator, to obtain compensation for the 2.3 billion euros losses incurred during the reactors construction. If no compensation were to be agreed, Areva would stop the construction of the plant, Anne Lauvergeon, head of the French group, said to French journalists.

In an interview with the French economics daily newspaper Les Echos...

http://www.global-perspectives.info/news/news.php?key1=2011-04-09%2020:23:18&key2=1

This is a nice overview of the problems plaguing nuclear - even without backlash from Fukushima.

Note the time delays (associated with dramatic price increases) and think about the Construction Work In Progress laws that red states are rushing to enact. These CWIP laws will obligate consumers to pay for a nuke plant no matter what the final cost is relative to the initial estimate, and even whether the plant is ever actually completed at all. If the Olkiluoto case were happening here and the plug was pulled after the cost had risen by 55%, whatever had been spent to that point would be on the backs of the ratepayers with the CWIP and taxpayers with the loan guarantees.

The vendor and the investors would lose nothing.

[enough]

1. k&r (nt)