Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Up Up and Away STNP Costs Already Escalating

The price for the South Texas Nuclear Project expansion just went up by $4 billion, now at $17 billion. Toshiba (the designer) apparently cannot agree on the price - thus the City of San Antonio is re-thinking this - and postponing their decision on whether to invest in 20 to 40 percent of the expansion. This is absolutely amazing, since nuclear proponents insist (indeed, shout it from the rooftops!) that Toshiba's Japanese nuclear plants are old technology by now - with modular construction and known costs. Apparently not! Stay tuned in Texas!

see this and this link.

This is an amazing jump in the price, roughly 33 percent, and construction has not yet started! When one adds in the inevitable delays, unforeseen conditions, change orders, escalations for materials, services, and labor, then interest on the construction loans, plus legal costs, this plant (if it ever gets built) will easily cost $25 to $30 billion.

And that is why nuclear power plants make zero sense in the USA.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Roger Sowell, I'm David. You being a lawyer, I would have thought you would have figured out why the change in title went from "Global Warming" to "Climate Change". Global warming represents that things are continually getter warmer day by day. Climate change represents a difference in climate, i.e. it rained yesterday and it didn't rain today, it's 20degrees cooler at night than it is in the day in the sun. So "they" have proof that the climate has changed. This must be due to CO2 emissions. I hope your a man that appreciates sarcasm. From an STNPshipsinker.

Roger Sowell said...

David, you are absolutely correct, that the AGW alarmists recently changed their wording to Climate Change when it became obvious that global cooling is occurring.

Their primary basis for this is that some areas will have cold, and others will have heat waves, but overall the globe's climate will become warmer. The overall warming is not happening, as direct measurements clearly indicate. (polar ice growing, sea levels not rising, ocean temperatures declining, hurricanes growing fewer and weaker, and others).

Some refer to this technique as "moving the goalposts."

I wish you the best in sinking the STNP ship, especially the proposed expansion project! I'm doing what I can from a distance.