The boondoggle has neared completion: Vogtle 3 is critical!

[OVERKILL]

I know it was mentioned that projects seem to go up on schedule in China but does anyone really believe that? Their entire state apparatus built around never being wrong.

I mean, these projects were run by AECL, Westinghouse and EDF, so the timeline and execution were pretty easy to track. China does seem to be able to execute large infrastructure like we could in the 60's and 70's.

In any case I hope the GA Power doesn't turn into First Energy (Ohio) who's in need of a $1B+ bailout for their two nuke plants.

Need? That was a bribery scandal:

Texas energy company paying $3.4B for nuclear plant owner

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Amid a federal corruption case, a company that owns nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and northern Ohio will be sold for more than $3.4 billion to an Irving, Texas-based company.

apnews.com

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1019567905/an-energy-company-behind-a-major-bribery-scandal-in-ohio-will-pay-a-230-million-

That said, many of the US operators have been trying to get their nuclear assets recognized as green and eligible for the same sort of credits that wind and solar have been enjoying, which has been a driving force behind their uptake (REC's for example).

Back when gas was super cheap however, nuke plants were indeed being undercut by gas plants, which have lower OPEX. Of course that has changed now. This didn't impact VRE because of the REC's.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I mean, these projects were run by AECL, Westinghouse and EDF, so the timeline and execution were pretty easy to track. China does seem to be able to execute large infrastructure like we could in the 60's and 70's.

Need? That was a bribery scandal:

Texas energy company paying $3.4B for nuclear plant owner

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Amid a federal corruption case, a company that owns nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and northern Ohio will be sold for more than $3.4 billion to an Irving, Texas-based company.

apnews.com

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1019567905/an-energy-company-behind-a-major-bribery-scandal-in-ohio-will-pay-a-230-million-

That said, many of the US operators have been trying to get their nuclear assets recognized as green and eligible for the same sort of credits that wind and solar have been enjoying, which has been a driving force behind their uptake (REC's for example).

Back when gas was super cheap however, nuke plants were indeed being undercut by gas plants, which have lower OPEX. Of course that has changed now. This didn't impact VRE because of the REC's.

The bribery scandal came about due to the methods used by the energy company to procure the the bailout package from the state of Ohio. I guess they found a buyer.

FirstEnergy was relentless in quest to have Ohio legislature bail out the utility’s nuclear plants

After previous attempts had failed, First Energy finally managed to orchestrate a nuclear bailout with the help of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.

www.cleveland.com

 

[OVERKILL]

The bribery scandal came about due to the methods used by the energy company to procure the the bailout package from the state of Ohio. I guess they found a buyer.

The utility found a buyer, yes.

FirstEnergy was relentless in quest to have Ohio legislature bail out the utility’s nuclear plants

After previous attempts had failed, First Energy finally managed to orchestrate a nuclear bailout with the help of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.

www.cleveland.com

From the article:

During an annual energy conference in early 2017, Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, revealed that First Energy was in “substantial financial trouble.” First Energy proposed something called “zero emission credits,” which would allow the utility to charge extra on electric bills because it was generating carbon-free nuclear power.

The credits would allow FirstEnergy to collect $300 million a year in perpetuity.

The whole thing was basically just a scam to try and get additional money to help the company's books, which weren't in great shape. However, it was predicated on leveraging the same scheme, as I noted earlier, that the renewables industry has had access to in the form of REC's. In this case, they would be branded as ZEC's, but the idea is the same. The plants didn't need a bailout, the scheme was cooked up using them as the angle; using their non-emitting output as leverage simply because it was most likely to succeed.

They are not the only utility to try and do this. Many other US operators of nuclear plants, which of course produce no direct emissions, feel they should be entitled to the same sort of recognition as VRE gets for that, and credited accordingly. Many of them faced some very challenging economics with their nuclear assets when they were being undercut by gas plants before COVID. If we are being blunt, this is an issue; this is an artifact of the "market" model because it doesn't in any way factor in emissions, so the value of a nuclear kWh is no more than that from a coal plant or gas plant, so whomever can generate that kWh the cheapest, fairs the best. This is while simultaneously that same "market" is being perverted via subsidy for wind and solar not requiring them to be competitive, as they are profitable regardless due to schemes like REC's.

 

[OVERKILL]

Resurrecting this thread, Unit 3 is now feeding electricity into the Georgia grid and will be slowly ramped up:

Grid connection for Vogtle unit 3 : New Nuclear - World Nuclear News

Vogtle unit 3 began supplying its first electricity to the grid on 1 April, Georgia Power announced. The AP1000 reactor - the first new reactor to start up in the USA since 2016 - is scheduled to enter commercial operation by mid-year.

www.world-nuclear-news.org

 

[Al]

In adjusted for inflation dollars TMI #1 cost 700 million one Vogtle Unist is costing 15 billion plus.

So proportionately it is costing over 20 times of Tmi#1. True boondoggle.

 

[OVERKILL]

In adjusted for inflation dollars TMI #1 cost 700 million one Vogtle Unist is costing 15 billion plus.

So proportionately it is costing over 20 times of Tmi#1. True boondoggle.

Where are you getting that figure?

Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Three Mile Island Unit 1 is a pressurized water reactor designed by Babcock & Wilcox with a net generating capacity of 819 MWe. The initial construction cost for TMI-1 was US$400 million, equal to $2.20 billion in 2018 dollars.

That's $2.44 billion in 2023 dollars.

And yes, the Vogtle units costing ~6x that is nuts.

Even if we adjust for per MW nameplate, TMI 1 is $2.98 million per MW, while a Vogtle unit is $13.43 million per MW.

 

[4WD]

I have watched Chinese workers on overseas projects … the HSE is just not there … We would not keep crews on those sites … nor would the authorities allow what they do (or don’t do) …

 

[alarmguy]

In adjusted for inflation dollars TMI #1 cost 700 million one Vogtle Unist is costing 15 billion plus.

So proportionately it is costing over 20 times of Tmi#1. True boondoggle.

I guess the question would be what does it cost to build power plants today vs when TMI#1?