Customers and shareholders of AmerenUE do not stand to benefit from the proposed second nuclear reactor at Callaway County. The cost is estimated at $6 billion to $11 billion.
Customers will have to pay if the Construction Work in Progress law is repealed by the Missouri Legislature in 2009. Taxpaying customers will have to pay through federal subsidies (which the next administration may or may not favor). Shareholders, who probably also would be customers, are paying for Ameren's lobbying efforts and will be the primary payers if the law is not repealed.
Frank Barnaby and James Kemp, with a foreword by David Howarth MP, July
2007
Supporters of nuclear power claim that the security risks can be managed.
However, this briefing paper clearly shows that a worldwide nuclear
renaissance is beyond the capacity of the nuclear industry to deliver
and would stretch to breaking point the capacity of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor and safeguard civil nuclear
power.
Even a failed terrorist attack on one of the first new builds would
most probably cause subsequent new build to halt in many countries.
If this happened, the authors argue that governments would need to
again review energy policy - minus civil nuclear power - further delaying
progress towards a sustainable and secure energy policy and possibly
causing the UK and other countries to miss the window of opportunity
to tackle climate change.
This briefing paper is one of a series of reports and factsheets
published as part of ORG's Secure
energy project.
Availability
Download as a PDF
http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/briefing_papers/toohottothandle
"The problem: Five Arizona cities--Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Scottsdale, and Tempe--are facing severe cash shortages. The solution: selling billions of gallons of wastewater to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in a move that will bring $1 billion to city coffers over a 40 year period. It's a unique use for treated wastewater, which is often used in landscaping and on golf courses. Palo Verde is the first nuclear plant ever to use reclaimed wastewater for cooling.
AZCentral explains some of the benefits:
For Palo Verde, which produces more power than any other U.S. power plant, the deal cements access to a predictable water supply through the plant's expected life span. Predictability is critical in the long-term management of a power plant, which uses water to cool the system, and eases the pain of the higher rates, utility officials said."
"Around 45 percent of children in Fukushima Prefecture checked by the prefectural and central governments in late March experienced thyroid exposure to radiation, although in all cases in trace amounts that didn't warrant further examination, officials of the Nuclear Safety Commission said Tuesday.
The survey was conducted on 1,080 children from newborns to age 15 in Iwaki, Kawamata and Iitate from March 26 to 30 in light of radiation leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Among children who tested positive for thyroid exposure, the amounts measured 0.04 microsievert per hour or less in most cases. The largest exposure was 0.1 microsievert per hour, equivalent to a yearly dose of 50 millisieverts for a 1-year-old."