Tom Fowler from the Houston Chronicle wrote an article about the NRG Energy’s recently announced project in south Texas titled Nuclear reactor plans signal renewed interest that was published on June 21, 2006.
The article follows the journalistic convention of “balance” by including some quotes and information from people opposed to the announced project. According to the article, here is one of the reasons why Public Citizen of Texas is opposed to nuclear power:
Tom Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, said it’s estimated the nuclear industry has been given more than $115 billion in direct taxpayer subsidies between 1947 and 1999.
So while nuclear power plants say the power they produce is among the cheapest in the country, Smith says their estimates don’t include the subsidies or cost overruns.
“Thirty years ago, we were promised that nuclear energy would produce energy ‘too cheap to meter,’ but the costs are still mounting,” Smith said.
Leaving aside the proofreading error that indicates that nuclear power plants can talk, the fact is that the nuclear power plants operating now in the US could operate in a business model that charges by the connection, not by the amount of power produced. By some definitions, their power is already “too cheap to meter.”
Here is a more complete development of that idea – Too Cheap to Meter – It’s Now True
