Nuclear Reactores 746 - Lakeland Electric In Central Florida Is Considering Investing In Nuclear Power

Nuclear Reactores 746 - Lakeland Electric In Central Florida Is Considering Investing In Nuclear Power

    There is little interest among U.S. utilities in constructing new nuclear power reactors. It is often mentioned as a possible energy source in planning but is seldom chosen as a top choice. Far more often, natural gas, solar or wind are chosen as the most viable and desirable options. The most recently constructed nuclear power plant in Florida was first put into operation during the first term of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
    Joel Ivy is the general manager of the Lakeland Electric (LE) utility company. He says that the next major investment that LE will make will be the construction of nuclear power reactors. He was quoted in the Lakeland Ledge as saying, “If you want to clean up your carbon footprint, nuclear will be part of your resources and it is carbon-free with zero emissions.”
   Ivy says that technological developments for the construction of small modular reactors might be able to the purchase of electricity from a company that builds SMRs a viable option for a utility the size of Lakeland Electric. He said, “I think by the time we are ready to make our next investment in the next 10 to 15 years, small modular reactors, if they prove out, are going to be the way a lot of people are going to want to go.”
    Ivy says that there are many advantages to nuclear power. They produce electricity twenty-four hours a day, every day. They do not require that thousands of miles of pipelines be constructed to deliver fuel to the power plant. Nuclear fuel prices are less volatile in the marketplace than fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas.
    Graham Brink is a business columnist at the Tampa Bay Times. He believes that all existing nuclear power plants in the U.S. should be kept operating for as long as possible. He was disappointed when Progress Energy (PE) decided to upgrade the steam turbines in their Crystal River nuclear power plant in central Florida and, through serious mismanagement, failed to successfully upgrade the plant.
    In order to put the new steam turbines in place it was necessary to cut a hole through the containment vessel. Standard practice was to loosen the steel bands around the vessel carefully. Every other band should have been loosened in order to distribute the stress. Each band should have been loosened in two stages.
    Two companies with expertise in such upgrades submitted bids. PE decided to perform the upgrade themselves in order to save fifteen million dollars. Instead of following the industry standard procedure, PE loosened all the bands at once. As they were cutting the hole for the steam turbines, cracks began to appear and multiply. The cost for fixing the cracks caused by PE incompetence climbed above a billion dollars and work was halted. The plant was sold to Duke Energy in 2012 and, a year later, Duke permanently closed the Crystal River nuclear power plant.
    If nuclear power is chosen by LE, they may encounter the same huge cost overruns and scheduling delays that have sunk other nuclear plant projects in the U.S. recently. They may find that nuclear power is not as attractive an option as they now believe.