Arnie Gundersen on Hurricane Sandy

PODCAST FOR OCTOBER 28TH, 2012:

DISCUSSION OF HURRICANE SANDY AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT ON U.S. NUCLEAR PLANTS, THE WOODS HOLE REPORT, KUDANKULAM, AND THE SHUTDOWN OF THE KEWAUNEE NUCLEAR PLANT

In this week's podcast Arnie Gundersen discusses with Kevin Hurley what affect we can expect Hurricane Sandy to have on operating U.S. nuclear plant

 

Nuclear power plants rely on off-site power to cool the reactors, but in the event of a "loss of off-site power" (which is likely in a hurricane,) plants rely entirely on backup diesel generators. 

 

A new report from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution finds Fukushima Daiichi accident released more radiation into the Pacific Ocean than any other nuclear event. 

 

Massive protests in India, at the site of the new Kudankulam nuclear plant, are met a harsh response by the Indian government. 

 

The U.S. Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant is about to shut down for good.

 

Gundersen discusses the costs of operating a nuclear power plant and suggests that other single-unit nuclear plants may soon follow suit

To hear audio GO HERE

As Arnie Gundersen pointed out this story has been largely suppressed by mainstrean media

One killed in Kudankulam nuclear power plant protests

A fisherman was killed on Monday after police opened fire to clear a highway blocked by demonstrators protesting against the country's largest nuclear power project, due to start up within weeks after months of opposition

Reuters, 10 September, 2012

Hundreds of protesters threw stones at police lines and also blocked a rail route, a police official told Reuters. Police responded by firing a volley of bullets in the air, killing one protester, the police official said. Other demonstrators set fire to a local government office.

Earlier, police used tear gas to break up thousands of protesters on a beach near the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

About 4,000 activists, mainly women and children from fishing villages, had camped on the beach about a mile from the plant to protest about the threat of radiation. (See pictures here here)

Protesters had waded into the sea or escaped in fishing boats as hundreds of police advanced on the beach. They threw rocks at police and several injuries were reported by both police and the protesters.

The Kudankulam plant is due to open within weeks and will provide 2 gigawatts of electricity -- enough to power millions of Indian homes and relieve a power crisis in Tamil Nadu. More nuclear plants are planned.

The government's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board last month gave clearance for fuel to be loaded into one of the Kudankulam plant's two reactors, one of the last steps before it can begin producing power.

India is struggling to meet surging demand for electricity and suffers from a peak-hour power deficit of about 12 percent, which has become a significant drag on the economy. A grid failure on two consecutive days this summer caused one of the world's worst blackouts.

First conceived in 1988, Russian-built Kudankulam was supposed to have gone into operation last year, but protesters surrounded the compound after an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing radiation leaks and forcing mass evacuations.

The protesters fear a similar accident could happen in southern India, a region that was hard hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde accused foreign NGOs (non-governmental organisations) for supporting the anti-nuclear protests in the state.

"We are aware that some foreign NGOs are very interested in this. I do not want to name those countries, but we are aware of it," Shinde told reporters in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also blamed NGOs for funding protests in an interview published in Science magazine earlier this year.

India plans to add 63 gigawatts of nuclear power by building 30 reactors by 2032. Nuclear accounts for less than 3 percent of total capacity.

But the country aims to increase power capacity over the next five years mainly through coal, which already accounts for 60 percent of India's energy generation. Environmental concerns and mismanagement have slowed growth there as well.

There have also been protests in coal fields in other parts of the country, while hydro power projects in the Himalayas have faced opposition from local tribes.

Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor to Be Closed

The owner of a small nuclear reactor in Wisconsin said Monday that it would close the Kewaunee Power Station early next year because it was unable to find a buyer and the plant was no longer economically viable.

NY Times,

22 October, 2012

The decision was viewed as an early sign that the wave of retirements of old generating stations across the Midwest is now stretching from the coal industry into nuclear power, driven by slack demand for energy and the low price of natural gas.

After receiving a 20-year extension from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February 2011 to continue operating Kewaunee, Dominion, based in Richmond, Va., put the power station up for sale. At 556 megawatts, it is about half the size of the largest plants now operating and is the only reactor at the Carlton site, rendering costs higher per unit of power than sites with two reactors. Dominion had hoped to buy several reactors in the Midwest that could share some overhead expenses with Kewaunee, but did not succeed.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, especially in light of how well the station is running and the dedication of the employees,” said Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion’s chairman, president and chief executive, in a statement. “This decision was based purely on economics.”

He said nuclear power would be essential to the nation’s energy future — just in other places. The company owns six other reactors at three sites, and will take a one-time charge of $281 million for the closure, which it expects in the spring.

The industry’s trade association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, tried to play down the significance of the Kewaunee closing, saying it was because of circumstances unique to Dominion. Marvin Fertel, the president and chief executive of the association, said that nuclear energy “remains a reliable, cost-effective producer of electricity for America’s homes and our economy.”

This did not explain, however, why no better-situated company came forward to buy the plant.

When Dominion bought the plant from local owners in 2005, it signed contracts to sell them the electricity, a common practice, but as those contracts expire, the plant faces selling electricity at the lower rates that now dominate the energy market.

Bruce Biewald, the founder and chief executive of Synapse Energy Economics, a consulting firm, said that low electricity prices were a severe problem for generators in places like the Midwest, where power is sold at auction. “You’re looking at margins that are declining in a really serious way,” he said.

Counting Kewaunee, there are 104 power reactors licensed in the United States. Kewaunee, which received its 40-year operating license in December 1973, will be the first reactor to retire since Millstone 1, near New London, Conn., in July 1998.

Annual capital costs on a 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor range from $60 million to $70 million, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute; average annual costs for operation and maintenance plus fuel are $140 million to $150 million. And when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is finished ordering improvements prompted by the Fukushima disaster of last year, some plants will face significant expenses. Perhaps more could decide that continuing to operate was not worth the investment given current revenues.

In some regions, the average selling price of a megawatt-hour today is less than $50 at times. But a survey of the industry by the Electric Utility Cost Group, an industry consortium, found that one quarter of nuclear plants with the highest costs were spending an average of $51.42 to produce a megawatt-hour from 2008 through 2010. And costs have gone up since then.

Other companies have also reported falling revenues, although they may not be on the verge of closing reactors because they are in regions where the market price of electricity is higher. Nearly all the operating reactors are approaching or have reached the end of their initial license periods, and have applied for extensions or received them. But the license may not indicate the lifetime of the reactor.

“No nuclear plant I know of has ever closed because it hit the end of its license,” said Peter Bradford, who served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1977 to 1982 and was later chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission. A nuclear plant needs a life expectancy of a few years for its owners to consider major new investments, he said in a telephone interview, but if low electricity prices persist, even that may not be enough.