Costly Power

New nuclear power plants will likely cost upwards of $20 billion (yes, that is billion with a “B”!) to build and customers like you will be responsible for those costs. Massive cost overruns were common with the initial nuclear plants built in the U.S. and it doesn’t appear that the situation has improved in spite of what the nuclear industry claims.

For example, the costs for the two new Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 reactors that Progress Energy wants to build in Levy County, Florida have more than tripled since their initial proposal. In 2006, Progress projected a $6 billion cost for building the two reactors. Four short years later, that cost has skyrocketed to $22.5 billion!

Unfortunately, the Florida Legislature approved early cost recovery legislation to promote nuclear power, so ratepayers are now paying in advance to build new reactors. This will add more than $30 per month to Progress customers’ bills by 2018! If the utilities think nuclear is such a great idea, why are they shifting the financial burden onto the wallets of their ratepayers? Because investors (a.k.a Wall Street) won’t touch these risky projects! Wall Street still remembers the billions in loan defaults on nuclear projects back in the 1980’s.

Adding insult to injury, these same tax-paying ratepayers are also footing the bill through federal loan guarantees. Put simply, when the utilities borrow for these risky projects, the federal government is backing them with our tax money. If the utilities default, the burden falls on the U.S. taxpayer to forgive the loans. You can read what former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford has to say about loan guarantees here and Taxpayers for Common Sense here.

So do something about it! Contact your Governor today! Learn More Here!