[gary]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

The main issue for NP for me is the cost... Is it really cheap in practice.

Hi Alex,

In the latest news, according to the former chairman of the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, that apparently is no longer true.

I was reading an article today in the April 2016 edition of the Institute
of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum Magazine
and having remembered your sentence, it caught my eye and I
immediately thought it might be of interest to you.

It the print edition of the magazine the article appeared under the heading
"U.S. Fission Fizzles" and in the online edition, the same article, by
Peter Fairley, appears under the heading "Has U.S. Nuclear Power's
Death Spiral Begun?"

Originally Posted by Peter Fairley, IEEE Spectrum Magazine

U.S. nuclear power plant operators are fighting a war on two fronts: Crashing prices for natural gas and accelerating market penetration of renewable energy have both contributed to dramatic drops in wholesale power price levels—in some states, they’ve fallen by more than two-thirds over the past decade. This has left nuclear power, whose operating costs are pretty much fixed, with few options other than surrender.

That marks quite a reversal, says Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “It’s been a widely held belief that nuclear is incredibly cheap to operate. That was the case 10 years ago, when nuclear plants were cash cows. That’s not the case today, especially as the plants age,” he says.

Fission is already giving ground. Two plants, in Wisconsin and Vermont, shut down in 2013 and 2014, respectively. More shutdowns are anticipated in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, and at least half a dozen more plants are teetering on the brink of insolvency.

Nuclear operators had been expecting President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have established national carbon regulations and increased the cost of fossil-fuel-generated electricity, to offer them a reprieve. But their hope was short-lived: The U.S. Supreme Court decided in February to stay implementation of the plan.

Originally Posted by Peter Fairley, IEEE Spectrum Magazine

By June, state regulators plan to detail special payments for New York’s nuclear plants. For companies that open their books and show that their plants are losing money, New York is vowing to make them whole.

“It’s probably the stickiest energy policy question there is in the electric sector,” says Julien Dumoulin-Smith, a senior power markets analyst with New York City–based UBS Investment Research.

New York is not alone. Several states, including Illinois and Ohio, are seeking to give nuclear power plants an extra boost. Exelon lists the dual-*reactor Quad Cities site in Illinois among its uncompetitive plants. Dumoulin-Smith says local power prices are being “pummeled” by wind power, noting that Quad Cities sits just across the border from Iowa, which leads the United States in wind power penetration.

Originally Posted by Peter Fairley, IEEE Spectrum Magazine

But experts say that tougher times could lie ahead, as the extension of tax breaks for wind and solar power voted through the U.S. Congress in December fuels further growth in renewable generation. New York’s program appears to anticipate this, positing that assistance to nuclear reactors is more of a temporary lifeline than a long-term guarantee. State aid is, according to a white paper from the N.Y. Public Service Commission, a means of supporting “a smooth emission-free transition from nuclear to nonnuclear resources” in the event that energy prices “are not able to support the continued financial viability of the [fission] plants.”

I was in West Texas this time last year and driving up through there I
was staggered by the huge number of wind turbines. Speaking to the
locals, it was a no brainer for the farmers. Those little oil derricks you
see throughout that part of the world had largely dried up and they
told me they could lease part of their land and make far greater returns
on a royalty from the wind turbines.

Likewise, flying both east-west and north-south over the United States,
I witnessed first-hand many vast areas of wind electric power generation.
Mind-bogglingly vast.

So in some ways it does no surprise me that power prices were being
pummelled by wind.

Article here -
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nucl...h-spiral-begun