John Helland: Nuclear Waste and Costs Always in our Lifetime

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03/09/10 - I watched with interest last week as the Senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee debated whether to lift the 1994 moratorium on construction of nuclear power plants.  I remember well the legislative session debate back then on where to store nuclear waste, as the Prairie Island storage pool within the reactor was almost full.

As legislative research staff, I was asked to call nuclear companies and power plants around the nation to see what plans they had in place to store nuclear waste.  While Yucca Mountain was still being studied as the possible federal waste respository, nuclear companies that had plants almost at capacity for waste storage were getting increasingly worried that they would have to seek legal permission to store waste at their plant sites.  It surprised me when I called these plants that they were expecting my call, as the nuclear network was alive and they all knew Minnesota plants were seeking legislative approval for on-site storage.

Also last week, a Washington Post article came out about the costs of new nuclear plants being passed on to the consumer before being built. 

John Helland

Two proposed plants in Georgia will cost $14 billion, a tidy sum in today's recessionary economy. Utilities in Georgia and several other southern states have convinced their public utilities commissions to charge customers for some of the costs while plant construction is still in progress.  The law and tradition has been that the plants must be built and in operation before any new electric rates are passed on to the utility customer.

Big business in these southern states and their associations are protesting paying for these "upfront" nuclear construction costs.  They even have formed alliances with consumer and environmental groups to fight the immediate rates and costs. Even after decades of nuclear plant subsidies and preferential treatment, bank lenders and investors are lerry of taking risks and asking customers to finance the capital costs of plants upfront.

Ratepayers in Missouri just defeated higher electrical rates being imposed by their PUC in construction of a new plant. Vermont recently voted down an extension of Vermont Yankee's operating plant license after radioactive tritum (a cancer risk substance) was found in nearby test wells.

So the Minnesota Senator who withdrew her bill to lift the legislative moratorium last week did so to keep it alive in another fashion this session.  As we know, still no federal waste repository, the Obama administration has closed the door on Yucca Mountain being that site - and at great taxpayer expense - so more storage casks will be filled and remain on site at nuclear plants around the country.  And, if the Minnesota moratorium ever is lifted, don't be surprised if our nuclear utilities don't go to the state PUC for authority to ask present ratepayers to pay construction costs for any new nuclear plants on the horizon.  We continue to pass this waste problem on to future generations.

John Helland worked on environment and natural resource issues for the legislature, and now writes, blogs and enjoys leisure while watching from afar.

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