"The Rust-Bucket Reactors Start to Fall"

Harvey WassermanHarvey Wasserman, editor of Nukefree.org and author of Solartopia, has written a blog inspired by the announced closure of the Kewaunee atomic reactor in Wisconsin. He begins by stating 'The US fleet of 104 deteriorating atomic reactors is starting to fall. The much-hyped "nuclear renaissance" is now definitively headed in reverse.'

He points out that Kewaunee may be but the first domino to fall, describing the impact of "low gas prices, declining performance, unsolved technical problems and escalating public resistance" at numerous other old, age-degraded, troubled reactors across the U.S., including San Onofre, CA; Crystal River, FL; Cooper and Fort Calhoun in NE; Vermont Yankee; Indian Point, NY; Oyster Creek, NJ; and Davis-Besse, OH.

Harvey writes "Many old US reactors are still profitable only because their capital costs were forced down the public throat during deregulation, through other manipulations of the public treasury, and because lax regulation lets them operate cheaply while threatening the public health."

He then goes on to describe the massive repair bills, escalating into the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, looming at reactors like San Onofre and Crystal River, due to faulty replacement steam generators and a cracked containment, respectively, if their owners ever hope to restart them again.

But Harvey also points out the momentum applies to new reactors as well, such as at Vogtle, GA and Summer, SC, as well as overseas, in the wake of Fukushima, not only in Japan, but also India, and even Europe, led by Germany's nuclear power phase out.

Harvey writes about the flagship new reactors proposed in the U.S.:

"The two reactors under construction in Georgia, along with two in South Carolina, are all threatened by severe delays, massive cost overruns and faulty construction scandals, including the use of substandard rebar steel and inferior concrete, both of which will be extremely costly to correct.

A high-priced PR campaign has long hyped a "nuclear renaissance." But in the wake of Fukushima, a dicey electricity market, cheap gas and the failure to secure federal loan guarantees in the face of intensifying public opposition, the bottom may soon drop out of both projects.

A proposed French-financed reactor for Maryland has been cancelled thanks to a powerful grassroots campaign. Any other new reactor projects will face public opposition and economic pitfalls at least as powerful."

Harvey, a senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), will address "From Fukushima to Fermi-3: Getting to Solartopia Before It's Too Late" in Dearborn, MI on Dec. 7th at the official launch event for the new organization, the Alliance to Halt Fermi-3.

Dominion Nuclear's claim that $392 million in decommissioning funds is sufficient are dubious

Reporting on Dominion Nuclear's decision to shut down and decommission the Kewaunee atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Wisconsin (photo, left), World Nuclear News has reported:

"Some $392 million in decommissioning funds for Kewaunee were transferred to Dominion at the time it bought the plant. The company said that Kewaunee's decommissioning trust is currently fully funded, and it believes that the amounts available in the trust plus expected earnings will be sufficient to cover all decommissioning costs expected to be incurred after the plant shut down."

This claim is quite dubious. The Big Rock Point atomic reactor, nearly due east of Kewaunee on Michigan's Lake Michigan shoreline, itself cost $366 million to decommission. But Big Rock Point, at 70 Megawatts-electric, was an order of magnitude smaller than Kewaunee (574 MWe). In addition, although Big Rock Point's owner Consumers Energy has declared its decommissioning completed, and even the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved "un-restricted re-use" for the supposedly "greenfield site," plutonium and other radioactive poisons remain in the soil, groundwater, and very likely flora and fauna. The sediments of the discharge canal, used to dump Big Rock Point's radioactivity into Lake Michigan for 35 years, have not even been checked for radioactive contamination levels, let alone cleaned up. (See the top six entries at NIRS' decommissioning website section for more information about Big Rock Point's inadequate decommissioning).

Thus, Dominion's assurances that $392 million will be sufficient to truly clean up Kewaunee's contaminated site may very well prove false.

"Aging and Expensive, Reactors Face Mothballs"

The Kewaunee atomic reactor on Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shorelineThe New York Times has reported on the economics that have not only led to the Kewaunee atomic reactor's (photo, left) announced closure in Wisconsin, but also other pressures and forces on reactors, from Entergy's Indian Point near New York City to Vermont Yankee, Duke's Crystal River in Florida, Exelon's Oyster Creek in New Jersey, and Southern California Edison's San Onofre. The article speaks of "[t]he industry’s renewed glimpse of its mortality" and states "the nuclear industry may be nearing its first round of retirements since the mid-1990s."  Kewaunee's closure will be the first at an American atomic reactor since several (Yankee Rowe, Massachusetts; Zion 1 & 2, Illinois; Big Rock Point, Michigan; Millstone Unit 1, Connecticut) in the mid to late 1990s. 

The article also reports that sometimes the costs of generating atomic energy are more than the revenues generated from the electricity sold:

'Bruce E. Biewald, the chief executive of Synapse Energy Economics, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass., compared the nuclear plants to old coal plants now facing big capital expenses. The cost of new pollution control equipment has coal companies “writing off hundreds of millions of dollars right and left,” he said. Much the same is now true for nuclear plants. “An asset that might have been worth a couple of billion dollars is now basically worthless,” he said. And with average costs approximating average revenue, some reactors face higher-than-average costs.

Christopher Crane, the chief executive of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear operator, said his company’s reactors sometimes found themselves selling electricity at hours when the market price was negative, driven below zero by a surplus of wind energy late at night during periods of low demand. In other words, they have to pay when they produce power, instead of being paid. And even during hours of higher demand, prices on the open market are low because of the low price of natural gas. The price of natural gas has to recover for his older nuclear plants to avoid being “challenged,” he said.'

This is reminiscent of the findings in the Union of Concerned Scientists report by Doug Koplow, which found that nuclear power subsidies have been so large, it would have been less expensive for the federal government to simply purchase electricity on the open market and give it away for free.

Nearly half of the atomic reactors on Lake Michigan's shores have closed over the past 15 years

NRC's file photo of KewauneeFrom The Washington Post: "Dominion Resources Inc. said Monday that it plans to close and decommission its Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin after it was unable to find a buyer for the nuclear power plant".

As nuclear power continues to crumble under the weight of its own disastrous economics, Dominion CEO, Thomas F. Farrell II,  becomes the latest industry CEO to lose confidence in the nuclear business. "This decision was based purely on economics," Farrell said. Dominion also operates the two North Anna, VA reactors, where a proposed third reactor plan looks fragile at best. It also operates Millstone, CT and Surry, VA.

A buyer could not be found, even though the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had already rubberstamped a 20 year license extension at Kewaunee. The costs of repairs to keep Kewaunee operating for 60 years, compared to expected revenues, did not make economic sense to continue operations.

Reuters also reported on this story, stating that more atomic reactors could follow suit, their bad economics forcing their closure:

"Especially vulnerable under this scenario would be small, old single reactor sites.

Other units that could be on the hit list because they fit the profile include Exelon Corp's Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Xcel Energy Inc's Monticello in Minnesota, and Entergy Corp's Palisades in Michigan, Vermont Yankee in Vermont and Pilgrim in Massachusetts."

In 1997, Big Rock Point in Michigan was permanently closed, as were Zion 1 & 2 in Illinois in 1998. Kewaunee's closure in 2013 will be the fifth reactor shut down on Lake Michigan's shores in 15 years. This will leave Point Beach 1 & 2 in WI, Palisades in MI, and Cook 1 & 2 in MI still operating on Lake Michigan's shores. Lake Michigan is a headwaters for the Great Lakes, 20% of the world's surface fresh water, providing drinking water for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Americans.

Several years ago, Kewaunee had more NRC "yellow findings" (the second highest category of safety violation) than the other (at the time) 102 operating reactors in the entire country. The very same year, Point Beach had more "red findings" (NRC's worst category of safety violation) than the rest of the industry combined. Kewaunee and Point Beach are a mere seven miles apart, the same distance as between Fukushima Daiichi and Daini in Japan. Daiichi and Daini's proximity, as well as their proximity to Tokai nearer Tokyo, led the Japanese federal government to prepare worst case scenario plans to evacuate 30 million people from Tokyo in the event of a "demonic chain reaction" of reactor melt downs and radioactive waste storage pool fires.

An NRC daily event report revealed that Dominion's announcement to decommission Kewaunee caused a security incident, as reporters descended on the reactor to cover the story.

The New York Times and Greenwire have also reported on this story, as has World Nuclear News.

Update on October 24, 2012 by admin

A number of Wisconsin news media outlets have reported on this story: the Fond du Lac Reporter; a number of stories by Fox 11, including one about local residents' safety, environmental, public health, and security concernsabout decommissioning, dismantlement releasing radioactivity, and high-level radioactive waste storage for decades along the Lake Michigan shoreline; the Green Bay Press Gazette; Wisconsin Radio Network; and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which quoted a Dominion Nuclear spokesman admitting that maintaining safe operations at Kewaunee was cost prohibitive at the age-degraded reactor:

"Owning more plants in one area would [have] allowed one company 'to leverage the megawatts and the shared staff,' said Richard Zuercher, a Dominion spokesman.

'We looked at all alternatives to keep the unit operating, but we could not make the reductions in the cost without it affecting safety,' Zuercher said." (emphasis added)

Debunking false claims of electric rate increases if Indian Point Units 2 & 3 are shutdown

Marilyn Elie of Cortlandt, New York, a co-founder of Westchester Citizens Awareness Network and one of the original members of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, has been involved in following events at Indian Point for the last 18 years. She recently wrote an op-ed at LowHud.com debunking misleading claims by the right-wing Manhattan Institute that shutting down Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point Units 2 & 3 atomic reactors would result in significant increases in regional consumers' electricity bills.

Marilyn concludes her op-ed:

"The NYISO [New York Independent System Operator] report is clear: even with this high-usage prediction, only 750 MW of replacement power would be needed by 2016 should both plants close. And, as both the NYISO and Manhattan Institute reports acknowledge, this amount of electricity does not have to come from new generation. It can come from improvements in transmission, demand response where large users enter into a contract with Con Ed to cut back usage at certain peak times in exchange for a lower rate, or it could be made up by changes in rules and regulations."

As reported by LoHud.com, Phillip Musegaas of Riverkeeper also responded to the Manhattan Institute report, saying that the Manhattan Institute author, Jonathon Lesser:

"...'cherry-picked' the facts. The report doesn’t consider new generating or transmission projects that are planned and glosses over the benefits of conservation, he said."

" 'This report actually recycles the same tired argument about the impacts of closing Indian Point that have been made repeatedly in the last few years and ignores recent developments that demonstrate Indian Point’s power can be replaced on time and affordably,' Musegaas said."

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a paid spokesman for the nuclear power industry, joined the Manhattan Institute author to praise Indian Point and call for its license extension. New York's Governor, Andrew Cuomo, however, has long called for Indian Point's permanent shutdown.