The Lines Continue To Be Drawn
May. 21st, 2009 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerThis time in Maryland which seems to be a key state in the "renaissance".
Opponents Saving Fire on Calvert Cliffs 3 - Maryland Daily Record - 19 May 09
"Stephen Thomas, a professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich in London, said Tuesday in an interview at The Daily Record that banks may find these projects to be low-risk propositions because the government will repay the loans if the companies cannot. Thomas was in Maryland to speak about nuclear energy. 'My main concern is the risk to taxpayers and consumers,' he said. 'They will end up taking on the risks.'
The design proposed by UniStar is a nuclear model being built in Finland and France by Areva, which is 85 percent controlled by the French government. Both projects are behind schedule and will end up costing far more than initially estimated. 'The experience [in Finland] has been astonishingly bad,' Thomas said.
'In fact, within a month of the start of construction there was a problem, and the problems have continued,' he said. Areva’s reactor in Finland was supposed to come on line this month after four years of construction; Thomas said the most recent estimate suggests the plant will be finished at the end of 2012, at more than $2 billion over budget.
Areva’s problems illustrate why federal loan guarantees have become more important than ever for building new reactors, Thomas said. Construction of a new plant has been estimated at roughly $9 billion, and as credit markets have tightened, interest rates on loans have gone up.
Instead of building the new reactor at Calvert Cliffs, Thomas recommends that Constellation drops its plans. 'Give it up,' he said. 'Walk away. There are much cheaper, easier ways to get electricity.'
But a deal for EDF to buy 49.9 percent of Constellation’s nuclear business hinges on bringing French nuclear technology to the United States. The PSC is also reviewing how that deal would influence Constellation’s regulated subsidiary, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co."
Opponents Saving Fire on Calvert Cliffs 3 - Maryland Daily Record - 19 May 09
"Stephen Thomas, a professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich in London, said Tuesday in an interview at The Daily Record that banks may find these projects to be low-risk propositions because the government will repay the loans if the companies cannot. Thomas was in Maryland to speak about nuclear energy. 'My main concern is the risk to taxpayers and consumers,' he said. 'They will end up taking on the risks.'
The design proposed by UniStar is a nuclear model being built in Finland and France by Areva, which is 85 percent controlled by the French government. Both projects are behind schedule and will end up costing far more than initially estimated. 'The experience [in Finland] has been astonishingly bad,' Thomas said.
'In fact, within a month of the start of construction there was a problem, and the problems have continued,' he said. Areva’s reactor in Finland was supposed to come on line this month after four years of construction; Thomas said the most recent estimate suggests the plant will be finished at the end of 2012, at more than $2 billion over budget.
Areva’s problems illustrate why federal loan guarantees have become more important than ever for building new reactors, Thomas said. Construction of a new plant has been estimated at roughly $9 billion, and as credit markets have tightened, interest rates on loans have gone up.
Instead of building the new reactor at Calvert Cliffs, Thomas recommends that Constellation drops its plans. 'Give it up,' he said. 'Walk away. There are much cheaper, easier ways to get electricity.'
But a deal for EDF to buy 49.9 percent of Constellation’s nuclear business hinges on bringing French nuclear technology to the United States. The PSC is also reviewing how that deal would influence Constellation’s regulated subsidiary, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co."
