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Power company kills nuclear plant, plans $6 billion in solar, battery investment

On Tuesday, power provider Duke Energy Florida announced a settlement with the state’s public service commission (PSC) to cease plans to build a nuclear plant in western Florida. The utility instead intends to invest $6 billion in solar panels, grid-tied batteries, grid modernization projects, and electric vehicle charging areas. The new plan involves the installation of 700MW of solar capacity over four years in the western Florida area.

There's excitement from the solar industry, but the announcement is more bad news for the nuclear industry. Earlier this year, nuclear reactor company Westinghouse declared bankruptcy as construction of its new AP1000 reactors suffered from contractor issues and a stringent regulatory environment. Two plants whose construction was already underway—the Summer plant in South Carolina and the Vogtle plant in Georgia—found their futures in question immediately.

At the moment, Summer’s owners are considering abandoning the plant, and Vogtle’s owners are weighing whether they will do the same or attempt to salvage the project.
More in the link.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/florida-power-company-exchanging-nuclear-plans-for-solar-plans-cutting-rates/
 

Kyuur

Member
Exciting that we're now at the point where this plant being canceled means that they build solar instead of fossil fuel as a replacement.
 

sant

Member
Solar is great and all, but new fission technologies seem pretty efficient based on what I have seen. I think taking it out of the future energy mix is a bad idea.
 

Buzzman

Banned
Fossil fuel is bad, but nuclear wastes lasts longer than humanity. Fossil fuel is just bad now because of the quantity. If we solely relied on nuclear, we'd be neck deep in shit.

If we solely relied on nuclear we wouldn't be having as many problems with global warming.
 

TarNaru33

Banned
Fossil fuel is bad, but nuclear wastes lasts longer than humanity. Fossil fuel is just bad now because of the quantity. If we solely relied on nuclear, we'd be neck deep in shit.

Not per pound. Carbon is more harmful just because of how much of it we throw up into the atmosphere.

Nice and all that you 2 want to point that out, but Nuclear waste wouldn't and isn't going to cause global warming, so your point is largely irrelevant.
 
Cheering-in-Crowd-EVO-2012.gif
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Fossil fuel is bad, but nuclear wastes lasts longer than humanity. Fossil fuel is just bad now because of the quantity. If we solely relied on nuclear, we'd be neck deep in shit.

Nuclear's problem is waste management and budgeting failures. Fossil fuels' problems are that it using it in the first place is damaging. I'd call the latter a "worse type of pollution."

Really? I don't recall entire swaths of land that are basically unlivable due to fossil fuels

Given time it will. But damage from nuclear power falls back entirely on human error, while fossil fuels are damaging no matter what.

But people are really dumb and as long as nuclear is being used there will be problems.
 

Buzzman

Banned
Imagine if there was a way to generate massive amounts of power and instead of releasing a bunch of Co2 into the air that kills millions and destroys the ecosystem you'd get a manageable byproduct that wouldn't affect anyone if stored properly.

Really? I don't recall entire swaths of land that are basically unlivable due to fossil fuels
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/17/beijing-smog-pollution-red-alert-declared-in-china-capital-and-21-other-cities

Beijing authorities have declared a five-day pollution ”red alert", shutting schools, ordering thousands of vehicles off the roads and telling residents to stay indoors, after the Chinese capital was enveloped by a shroud of toxic smog that is expected to linger until Wednesday

However, the risk to human health remained severe, with studies suggesting air pollution was causing between 300,000 and 1 million premature deaths a year.

It would literally be more healthy for the people of Bejing to move to Chernobyl, but since it would be bad optics for China to evacuate their capital it's just kinda swept under the rug.
 
Going by John Oliver's piece- You cannot not build a toilet in your home and then wonder why there is shit everywhere.

The main problem with nuclear waste seems to be no one has a system for it.
 
It doesn't help when people see the word "nuclear" and piss their pants.

Nuclear power needs to be a part of the green energy billet. When built with modern technology and when built on geologically stable areas they are supremely safe.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
does anyone not remember the shitstorm that was Fukushima?

fukushima_radiation_nuclear_fallout_map.jpg

Goes back to human error, saving money was prioritized over safety. That plant was scheduled to be shut down before the incident happened. Its operations were extended despite decades of research and reports indicating that type of reactor in that location was a risk.

Basically, people gonna be people.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Southern Co is gonna try and go ahead with Vogtle 3 and 4. They hired a new project management engineering firm in Bechtel to oversea the project.

Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Not surprised though. Big business scared of Nuclear due to investment and engineering costs not panning out.
 

antonz

Member
Glad they are investing into green energy in this case instead of gas or coal.

Still saddened to see what has happened to the Nuclear Industry but its been an industry in trouble for decades as misinformed people railed against it even when it was the best option.
 

SRG01

Member
I'll bet the economics of the nuclear plant no longer made sense. Solar has zero input costs, and the upfront capital investment is decreasing every day.
 

Acerac

Banned
Not per pound. Carbon is more harmful just because of how much of it we throw up into the atmosphere.
Granted, but I feel that acknowledging the fact that so much more is produced is necessary when comparing the options.

If solar, wind, or hydroelectric are viable by all means I would prefer to go that route. I just see many act like nuclear is the worst option when it comes to downsides and I just can't agree with that.
 

kyser73

Member
Really? I don't recall entire swaths of land that are basically unlivable due to fossil fuels

Go and talk to the South Sea islanders in the Oavifuc whose homes are literally disappearing due to rising sea levels.

Or the declining polar bear population in the Arctic, dying off due to their ice floes disappearing.

Or the coral bleaching caused by warming seas.

And that's before we get to the desertification of trans-Saharan Africa, or the increased severity of monsoons following extended droughts leading to fertile topsoil being washed away, rendering agrarian land unusable.
 

Kangi

Member
I'd take a fossil fuel -> nuclear trade over a nuclear -> solar trade, but I find this to be positive news regardless.
 

zer0das

Banned
I was going to say, it is easy to pay 6 billion for solar when the public has to bail out your failure to build nuclear plants with rate hikes. But it seems going solar let them lower the rate hikes by 3.2%, so ehh... best of a bad situation, I suppose.
 
Not in your or your kids lifetime
And rather presumptuous to assume global warming is entirely hydrocarbons fault

Yes in his and his kids lifetime. Sea rise doesn't just happen to kick into effect in 2100, Miami is already practically being lost to the sea and constant flooding. Not to even mention all the other islands and low lying areas all around the world that are already feeling the effects of sea level rise.

Only climate change deniers say shit like this, and those people are the biggest idiots in the world.

Just like people who post radiation maps from Fukushima.
 

SRG01

Member
Granted, but I feel that acknowledging the fact that so much more is produced is necessary when comparing the options.

If solar, wind, or hydroelectric are viable by all means I would prefer to go that route. I just see many act like nuclear is the worst option when it comes to downsides and I just can't agree with that.

Mainstream nuclear tech is definitely the worst option. A combination of non-proliferation treaties (which prevented breeder reactors from being made) and the continuing commercial non-viability of new technologies was the nail in the coffin.

Small scale reactors were tested as well, but the ROI was a disaster.
 
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