Bailout Bonanza: Comments on the Restart of Three Mile Island, (9/3/24)
Bailout Bonanza.
Eric Epstein
September 3, 2024
It wasn’t long ago that Pennsylvania politicians
approved deregulation and embraced the market place.
It wasn’t long ago that TMI couldn’t compete in the
market place, and lost $300 million over eight years.
It wasn’t long ago that nuclear utilities received a $9 billion bailout to help nuclear power transition to a competitive market.
The market has spoken, but politicians aren’t listening.
Constellation will have the support of President Biden,
Governor Shapiro, labor, and the legislature for another bailout.
The proposed restart of the Three Mile Island Unit-1 will require at least a $1.8 billion bailout, and a long-term power purchase agreement. (Palisades began operating in 1971; 805 mw.)
This would mark the fourth bailout for Three Mile Island.
Nuclear bailouts are expensive and have two constant threads: Nuclear power can’t compete in the market place, and rate payers get the bill and higher electric prices.
Bailout, #1: TMI-2 experienced a core melt accident
after 90 days of operation. Rate payers and tax payers
came to the rescue.
TMI-2 received $987 million to defuel the melted core
under a plan coordinated by former Governor Dick Thornburgh.
We protected TMI from bankruptcy. Most of the fuel was removed, but Unit-2 remains a high-level, radioactive waste site.
How did TMI show their gratitude?
TMI-2 pays no taxes, reduced their insurance coverage, and eliminated their emergency plan.
Alternative: The Solana Generating Station in Arizona completed in 2013 can produce up to 280 megawatts and supply 55,000 homes.
The Department of Energy sponsored a $967 million loan guarantee.
Bailout #2: In 1995 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed
a lower court’s decision, and allowed GPU to charge rate payers
for the cleanup of the TMI-2 accident. Yes, we got the cleanup bill, for a plant that operated for 90 days. The plant remains a high-level radioactive waste site.
In case you had forgotten, the nuclear industry failed to establish decommissioning funds for an accident they promised could not happen. The current cost to decommission TMI-2 – which will be totally underwritten by rate payers – was determined by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be $1.27 billion in 2018.
TMI-2 now plans to “pause” the clean-up at TMI-2 due to
a lack of funds.
The cost to defuel TMI-2 – and potentially clean up the site – has cost rate payers and tax payers $2.357 billion or $28,188.88 million for each day the reactor operated.
Alternative: In December 2010, the Department of Energy issued a $1.3 billion partial loan guarantee under the Financial Institution Partnership Program to finance Shepherds Flat, an 845-mw wind power generation project located in eastern Oregon. It reached full commercial operations in November 2012.
Bailout, #3: In 1996 the Pennsylvania Legislature passed the Electricity Customer Choice and Competition Act. The law restructured the electric industry, separating the generation of electricity from its distribution and transmission
Utilities claimed they were saddled with “stranded costs” from nuclear power plants due to their cost overruns. Limerick-1went
from an estimated cost of $1.7 billion in 1984 to $7.246 billion. Limerick-2 cost 7.5 times more that the initial estimate of $382 million. The final cost was $2.9 billion.
Nuclear utilities received $9 billion in the deregulation bailout that took consumers a decade to pay off. Keep in mind, these payments were meant to help nuclear power generators transition to competitive markets.
The construction of TMI-1 and TMI-2 were underwritten by rate payers at a cost of $1.1 billion. The first two bailouts for TMI-2 cost rate payers $2.257 billion.
When you factor the cost rate payers paid to bail out TMI-2, and build both units, the bill is $3.357 billion.
What did we get for their investment? Seven hundred tons of nuclear garbage at TMI-1, and a high-level radioactive waste
at TMI-2.
Neither plant has been decommissioned.
Alternative: Hydro-Québec has announced its plans to create a $9-billion wind farm in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region in partnership with three Native American tribes. The farm will generate 3,000 mw.
The $600 million Innu wind project will use province's hydro dams as backup power for when wind doesn't blow.
Tax payers keep bailing out Three Mile Island which means that rate payers keep losing out. Restarting Three Mile Island comes with a price tag, a rate increase, and 600 tons of additional spent fuel.
Pay it forward doesn’t mean piling up more radioactive garbage for
our grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great, great, grandchildren.
In the real world, when you create a catastrophe, you aren’t
bailed out, and given a tax-free nuclear mulligan.
First things first.
Is it too much to ask to clean up the mess you made 45 years ago?
Note: This information is not contained on the Department of Environmental Resources or Nuclear Caucus web sites which are funded tax payer dollars.
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