On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 04:39:54 -0500, Gary Coffman
wrote:

(That fund theoretically contains a very large surplus which has
been paid in over the 47 years of commercial nuclear power in
the US, but like other such trust funds, ie Highway Trust Fund,
Social Security Trust Fund, etc, the government actually spent
the money for other unrelated things as quickly as it came in,
and the fund really just contains a big IOU the government
has written on the taxpayer.)

On top of that, many argue that the fund will be way short. What are
the odds that nuke promoters came up with a low number and that the
taxpayers will fund the difference... naw! ;-)

The actual bussbar cost of electricity from a nuclear plant
depends primarily on how long the government holds up the
licensing process. For the last plants built in the US, that
was running about 12 years. What that means is that the
plant operator is incurring interest costs on the money
borrowed to build the reactor for 12 years before the plant
generates the first billable watt.

When the last US plant was built, that ran the cost of the
plant up between 4 and 5 times compared to the 3 years it
normally took in the 1960s to license a US plant (or to
license a plant in other countries such as Japan or France
today).

While promoters always claim that nuke regulation is out of control, I
think Davis-Besse proves that it isn't. They *claim* they've had a
wake up call, but my guess is they'll just push the snooze button
again.

Wayne