The global nuclear power industry is trying hard to convince everyone that nuclear power is a viable option and that safe and economical nuclear power plants can be built. Unfortunately, many nuclear power projects fall behind schedule and incur cost increases that can be multiples of original estimates. Major nuclear power plants are based on standard designs but are built onsite and customized to fit the requirements of each installation which often results in high costs and construction delays. One attempt to address problems with construction budgets schedules is the idea of prefabricating sections of the plants in factories and shipping them by rail to the construction sites to lower costs and speed up construction.
The Georgia Power Company (GPC) , a unit of Southern Company, is employing the new prefabrication method in the construction of two new power reactors at the existing Vogtle nuclear power plant near Waynesboro, Georgia. The new construction is three years behind schedule. GPC has a forty six percent share in the Vogtle plant for which it expects to spend seven and a half billion dollars. This cost is about one and a half billion dollars more than the Georgia regulatory agency authorized in 2009. The Georgia ratepayers may see over three hundred dollars a year added to their electricity bills. GPC has express the hope that the ratepayers will not see their cost for electricity rise more than eight percent a year. An executive VP of GPC said, "The promise of nuclear construction has yet to be seen." A former member of the Georgia Public Service Commission said, "Modular construction has not worked out to be the solution that the utilities promised."
South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCEGC) is constructing two additional nuclear power reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant near Jenkinsville, South Carolina. The current estimated expenditure for SCEGC's fifty five percent share of the plant is six billion eight hundred million dollars, over a billion dollars more than a 2012 estimate. SCEGC is offering to reduce its profit margin on the project if the state regulators are willing to approve a new cost estimate and revised construction schedule. The commission has not yet issued a decision on the SCEGC offer.
Five years ago, U.S. utilities were promoting plans for the construction of over two dozen new nuclear power reactors in the U.S. The U.S. nuclear industry was bragging about the arrival of a "nuclear renaissance" in the U.S. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission created a separate division to oversee the flood of applications for new construction.
However, the fracking boom and the arrival of cheap natural gas dampened utilities enthusiasm for new power reactors. Currently there are five reactors under construction in the U.S. The two that we mentioned above are both behind schedule and over budget. The NRC has folded the new division that was created back into the main operations. The nuclear renaissance seems to be losing steam (pardon the pun.)
Vogtle plant construction:
V.C. Summers plant construction:
