by Sue Sturgis
Percent by which President Obama’s latest budget proposal would
increase taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors:
300
Amount the Department of Energy under President Bush originally proposed spending on loan guarantees for nuclear reactors: $18.5 billion
Amount the Obama administration is now proposing to spend: $54 billion
Number of new reactors that Energy Secretary Steven Chu says that amount could support: 7 to 10
The
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the risk of
default on these loans, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab: 50 percent
Potential
risk exposure to taxpayers based on various proposed scenarios for new
nuclear plant construction, as calculated by the Union of Concerned
Scientists: $360 billion to $1.6 trillion
Current price estimate for a new reactor: $10 billion
Of the 4 nuclear reactor construction projects considered front-runners for loan guarantees,* number in the south: 3
Early
cost estimate for the two reactors proposed for the V.C. Summer plant
in South Carolina, a joint project of SCE&G and Santee Cooper: $9.8 billion
Current cost estimate for that project: nearly $11 billion
Current
estimated cost of the project to build two new reactors at the Southern
Co./Georgia Power Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Ga.: $14 billion
Year
in which the Georgia legislature passed a law allowing Georgia Power to
begin charging customers for the Vogtle reactors even before they were
licensed: 2009
Date
on which the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that
Westinghouse failed to demonstrate that the building designed to shield
its AP1000 reactor—the design slated for Vogtle and Summer—was
safe: 10/15/2009
Original cost estimate for the two reactors at the South Texas Project, which involves NRG Energy, CPS Energy, and Toshiba: $5.4 billion
Adjusted cost estimate announced last fall: $13 billion
Current cost estimate for the project: $17 billion
Amount
in damages CPS is seeking via a lawsuit that alleges NRG and Toshiba
conspired to mislead its officials on the reactors’ cost: $32 billion
Current estimated cost of the EPR reactor proposed for Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, not including financing: $10 billion
The estimated cost of an identical reactor being considered in Pennsylvania: $13 billion to $15 billion
During the previous nuclear push of the 1970s and 1980s, number of new plants utilities abandoned due to cost overruns: about 100
Estimated amount taxpayers and ratepayers paid for those abandoned plants: $40 billion
Amount ratepayers paid in today’s dollars in cost overruns for the plants that were built: over $200 billion
Year
in which Forbes called the previous round of nuclear plant
construction “the largest managerial disaster in business history, a
disaster on a monumental scale:” 1985
Estimated
additional amount it would cost to generate electricity today from 100
new nuclear reactors instead of generating the same amount of power
from a combination of energy efficiency and renewables: $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion
*
In the South, two new reactors are slated for V.C. Summer in South
Carolina, two for Plant Vogtle in Georgia, and two at the South Texas
Project near San Antonio. One reactor is also planned at Maryland’s
Calvert Cliffs, a joint undertaking of Constellation Energy and the
French government-owned Electricité de France.
(This story originally appeared at Facing South. Click on figures to go to the original source.)
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