Impressive nuclear headlines in the papers these days, largely as a result of a new report released by our office entitled: “Costs of Current and Planned Nuclear Power Plants in Texas: A Consumer Perspective. The report finds that the proposed expansions of nuclear power plants in Bay City (South Texas Project) and Glen Rose (Comanche Peak) could cost $22 billion, boost the cost of electricity for consumers and curtail investment in energy-efficiency programs and solar power.
The headline in the San Antonio Express News yesterday morning, just below the banner no less, read: Nuke Plan May Cost $22 Billion
This morning the Fort Worth Star Telegram also ran an article titled Anti-nuclear group: Comanche Peak expansion could cost $27.6 billion
The San Antonio Current’s Queblog also reports: Projected nuke power’s price tag inflating.
In addition to a real cost estimate for nuclear power plant expansions in Texas, the report also compares the cost of nuclear power to the cost of alternatives such as wind, solar, and energy efficiency. I’d encourage anyone who complains about the expense of renewable energy but claims that nuclear power is “cheap” to take a gander at the following graph:
Wow. Even on the low estimate end, energy efficiency costs just a fifth of what we would spend to get that kind of power from a nuclear plant, and wind and solar both come in well under that cost of nukes. Take that, naysayers!
A major concern brought up in this report is that the massive capitol outlays for nuclear power options may drain available financial resources for making advancements in deploying more cost effective alternative resources. In San Antonio, this could mean that CPS Energy chooses to partner with the South Texas Project Nuclear Expansion at the expense of Mission Verde, Mayor Phil Hardberger’s aggressive plan to green the city’s infrastructure, businesses, energy sources and technology.
“This new report indicates that we’re going to have to decide now which energy future we want for San Antonio,” said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson. “If CPS becomes a partner in the South Texas Project expansion, we are simply not going to have the financial resources to front Mission Verde. We can either choose the most expensive option possible and send our jobs to Bay City and overseas contractors, or pay a fraction of the cost to create thousands of jobs here at home and power the city with clean, green energy.”
For more information on how consumers could get stuck with the check if the nuclear plant goes over-budget or can’t meet its construction schedule (as they are notoriously wont to do), check out our press release.
The San Antonio Current’s Queblog reports,
Prior to deregulation in 2001, ratepayers were drained of $5 billion in capital costs for the nukes in North Texas and Bay City, according to Johnson’s “Costs of Current and Planned Nuclear Power Plants in Texas.”
Also, much of the overruns associated with Comanche Peak and STP have been borne by electric consumers in Texas’ deregulated market since, who “continue to pay off at least $3.4 billion for nuclear assets through transition charges, as well as $45 million in annual payments for nuclear decommissioning,” Johnson writes.
Additional associated STP costs have also been passed along by AEP and CenterPoint to their customers.
Those interested in the report may also download either the full report or a short fact-sheet detailing the report’s major findings.
Along these same lines, turns out today is the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)’s national call-in day to end coal and nuclear subsidies. Their action email reads:
Today is National Grassroots Call-In Day to stop taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power and coal! Please take a moment to call your Senators and Representative and let them know billions of dollars of your money in subsidies for new nuclear reactors and coal plants are simply an unacceptable choice for our energy future and our planet.
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
And please take a moment to also send a letter to your Senators and Representative.
You can send a letter to both of your Senators here.
You can send a letter to your Representative here.
The basic phone message is simple: No Nukes, No Coal, No Kidding! Congress must support renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, not waste more taxpayer money on dangerous, dirty and extraordinarily expensive nuclear power and coal technologies.
Knowing what you do, why not make the call?
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I’m Ashly and I’m writing in response to the idea of Nuclear ENergy in San Antonio. I am only 16, and I have strong environmental beliefs. Now while I do realize nuclear energy would be more efficient for our economy and would not emmit harmful emmissions like other power plants, it is still very dangerous. The government tells us they will find a way to take care of the harmful waste that goes along with the energy plant, but do they really? All the waste is going underground in these huge concrete store houses, that can’t be good, and does anybody remember what happend at the Chernobyl plant? One little mess up and bam! it destroyed an entire city and it took many many years for all the hazardous radioactive material to be gone.This incident caused people there lives and scarred many generations to come. Although this is highly unlikely, what will happen if something like this happes here?
I don’t think San Antonio should be spending this obscene amount of money for nuclear energy. If anything this city needs to find a way to fix the water supply at Kelly Air Force base that is being used to supply the surrounding houses with water. The water there is contaminated beyond belief and a friend of mine is suffering because of it. This city needs to learn how to take care of other isues before wasting money on even more dangerous forms of energy. Why not use this money toward’s developing solar energy? Wind energy wouldn’t work here because we don’t get adequate wind to meet our cities needs, but solar energy I’m sure would work. So please I ask you to reconsider this idea for my generation and the next.
Well said, Ashly, I certainly share your concern about the dangers of nuclear power. You may be interested in visiting one of our sister sites, http://www.nukefreetexas.org, for more information on new nuclear proposals for Texas and how you can take action to make sure your representatives know how you feel.
As far as wind power in San Antonio is concerned, however, I think that the possibilities may be greater than you think. I believe that San Antonio currently gets 10% of its energy from renewable sources, a good portion of which is wind out in West Texas.
San Antonio is pursuing a very aggressive program you may have heard of, Mission Verde, which would do much to make San Antonio a more sustainable and energy efficient city. One of their main goals is to get solar panels on enough rooftops to power 30,000 homes, but the major investments that would be necessary for nuclear power could drain available funds for Mission Verde.
Thanks for reading Ashly, and thank you for your passionate words. It is so important for young adults like yourself to get involved and be outspoken politically, because your generation is going to have to live with the decisions made by our leaders today. I’d encourage you to call or email your city council members and let them know how you feel about this project — their contact information can be found here: http://www.sanantonio.gov/Council/
Keep checking back to Texas Vox for updates on the nuclear issue in San Antonio, and feel free to contact us with any more questions or concerns!
[...] magical (but mysterious) was different for them, despite our prediction in late April that the proposed reactors could actually cost as much as $22 Billion. Mum was CPS’ word on a cost estimate at that time, but by June they announced that $13 [...]