Plant Vogtle builders to regulators: Keep going

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The article reports:

Critics of the Vogtle project condemned Georgia Power’s recommendation.

“It is not a good deal for Georgia ratepayers,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer advocacy group. “I believe it is clearly uneconomic, and it is the (state utility regulator’s) responsibility to require the least-cost option,” said Coyle.

Critics have said the plant isn’t needed, and that Georgia Power and state regulators should also have looked at bigger investments in solar power and energy conservation instead.

EXPERTS: V.C. SUMMER FAILURE SHOULD PUT AN END TO STATE AND FEDERAL BAILOUTS FOR NUCLEAR INDUSTRY

Vogtle Reactor Project Collapse Seen in Wake of VC Summer Project Abandonment; 2016 State Bailout Push for Nuclear Had Already Faltered in 2017, Budget-Busting Bill for U.S. Taxpayers If Foolhardy National Bailout Proceeds.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///August 3, 2017///The abandonment this week of the V.C. Summer nuclear project in South Carolina heralds the likely demise of “new” nuclear in the United States (including the Vogtle project in Georgia and North Anna 3 in Virginia) and also should put an end to state or federal bailouts for the failing nuclear industry, according to four experts who held a media briefing today.

Nuclear economist Dr. Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis, Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, said the V.C. Summer shutdown should lead to a similar step at the Vogtle project in Georgia and to a renewed focus on renewable energy...

Read the full 08.03.17 news release.
Listen to the 08.03.17 news briefing.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Max Karlin (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com.

Southern Co.: Vogtle nuclear project tab rises to $25B

As reported by Seeking Alpha:

SO discloses it will cost at least $25.2B to complete the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, raising new questions about whether the sole remaining nuclear facility under construction in the U.S. will get built.

The report of the escalating expenses, which have nearly doubled over the past nine years, comes two days after SCANA Corp. abandoned a similar project in South Carolina that also followed years of delays and rising costs.

This story has also been reported on by Dow Jones Newswires.

Given that both two-unit new build projects, in both GA and SC, now admit price tags of $25 billion+ each, this means that each reactor unit would cost more than $12.5 billion to built. This is around double the initial estimated price tag.

SCE&G and VC Summer, by the numbers

Published by The State in South Carolina, summarizing the massive cost overruns (in the many billions of dollars), at ratepayer expense, that led to Westinghouse Nuclear's bankruptcy, and the cancellation of the Summer Units 2 & 3 proposed new reactor construction projects.