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Another plant that is reportedly under financial stress is the Davis Besse nuclear plant in Ohio. It had been identified as being at risk of shutdown due to economic factors. 465 Its operator FirstEnergy proposed a power-purchase agreement with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which approved a special eight-year arrangement in March 2016. 466 The arrangement would have required FirstEnergy's Ohio customers to subsidize the continued operations of Davis-Besse and the Sammis coal-based thermal plant. However, in April 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) blocked the power purchase agreement. 467 FirstEnergy is now trying to put together a revised power purchase plan. 468 In the meanwhile, FirstEnergy has not publicly announced what happened to Davis Besse and the coal power plants in the Pacific Gas & Electric Co (PG&E) capacity auction. 469 Perhaps the most dramatic decision to shut down a nuclear power plant has been that of PG&E in June 2016 to close the two units of Diablo Canyon, the last nuclear power plant in California, by 2024 and 2025, and replace the lost electrical capacity with “investment in a greenhouse-gas-free portfolio of energy efficiency, renewables and energy storage”. 470 The deliberate and well-planned way in which the plant is being replaced is due to extensive negotiations between PG&E and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, the Coalition of California Utility Employees, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment California, Friends of the Earth and the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. What is also noteworthy is PG&E Chief Executive Tony Earley’s acknowledgment that as California makes the transition towards a grid based on energy efficiency, renewables and storage, “Diablo Canyon’s full output will no longer be required” and that would eventually make the nuclear plant too expensive to operate. As other U.S. states, and indeed other countries, move to electrical power systems that use renewables and energy efficiency more extensively, it is quite likely that they will come to the same realization. In all, therefore, over the last three years, electrical utilities have decided to shut down 14 nuclear reactors because of their lack of economic competitiveness. As of now, the list of reactors includes Crystal River 3 in Florida, San Onofre 2 and 3 in California, Kewaunee in Wisconsin, Vermont Yankee in Vermont, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, Fitzpatrick in New York, Clinton and Quad Cities 1 465 Mark Cooper, “Power Shift: The Deployment of a 21st Century Electricity Sector and the Nuclear War To Stop It”, Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, see http://wwwassets.vermontlaw.edu/Assets/iee/Power_Shift_Mark_Cooper_June_2015.PDF, accessed 16 June 2016. 466 John Funk, “FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse, Sammis power plants make money after all: FirstEnergy profits show”, Cleveland.com, 27 April 2016, see http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2016/04/firstenergys_davis-besse_sammi.html, accessed 16 June 2016. 467 Gavin Bade, “FERC blocks Ohio power plant subsidies for AEP and FirstEnergy”, Utility Dive, 28 April 2016, see http://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-blocks-ohio-power-plant-subsidies-for-aep-andfirstenergy/418297/, accessed 16 June 2016. 468 Jon Chavez, “FirstEnergy rate plan gets retooled”, The Blade, 22 May 2016, see http://www.toledoblade.com/Energy/2016/05/22/Controversial-rate-plan-gets-retooled.html, accessed 16 June 2016. 469 John Funk, “FirstEnergy mum on fate of two old Ohio power plants in regional auction”, Cleveland.com, 25 May 2016 see http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2016/05/firstenergy_mum_on_fate_of_two.html, accessed 13 June 2016. 470 Ivan Penn, Samantha Masunaga, “PG&E to Close Diablo Canyon, California’s Last Nuclear Power Plant”, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2016, see http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diablo-canyon-nuclear- 20160621-snap-story.html, accessed 24 June 2016. Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 135 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016
& 2 in Illinois, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, Oyster Creek in New Jersey, and Diablo Canyon 1 & 2 in California. The number is likely to grow further. A June 2016 report from UBS Securities warns that even nuclear plants with long-term power purchase agreements might be at risk of early closure, and listed Xcel Energy Inc.'s Prairie Island plant in Minnesota and Entergy Corp.'s Palisades plant in Michigan as two examples of nuclear facilities that could close early. 471 New Reactor Projects—Delayed, Suspended, Cancelled Construction of four AP1000 reactors, Vogtle-3 and -4 in Georgia and VC Summer-2 and -3 in South Carolina has continued. In an effort to speed up construction of these already delayed reactors, Westinghouse settled ongoing legal cases with the owners of these plants and purchased the nuclear construction unit Stone & Webster from Chicago Bridge & Iron. 472 Westinghouse Chief Executive Danny Roderick was confident that the acquisition would lead to shorter construction times, claiming: “We’re the largest nuclear company in the world that’s privately owned, and we’re going to show why that’s a good thing, and get these plants done”. 473 So far, there has been no significant change in the pace of construction of these four units. An illustration of the continuing construction problems is at the Vogtle site where units-3 and -4 are falling further behind schedule. According to-testimony before the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) in December 2015, efforts to catch up haven’t been successful and delays have become worse. 474 The Vogtle units are now officially delayed by 39 months, and if a US$1.1 billion tax bill is added, the current cost for Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of the project, is US$9.5 billion, much higher than the US$6.1 billion the GPSC originally certified for Georgia Power; assuming that the other share of the project has experienced similar cost increases, the total costs for the project are estimated to be approximately US$21 billion. 475 A June 2016 assessment by the GPSC concluded that current scheduled commercial operation dates of June 2019 for unit 3 and June 2020 for unit 4 are unlikely to be met: “It is our opinion that there exists a strong likelihood of further delayed operation dates for both units”. 476 The latest cost increase at the time of writing was South California Electric & Gas (SCE&G), which sought and received approval from state regulators for a US$852 million increase in the projected cost of VC Summer-2 and -3. 477 The company terms its contract a fixed one; according to a spokesperson: “The fixed-price option provides substantial value to our customers, investors and our company by limiting the risk of future cost increases”. Others did not agree with this 471 Matthew Bandyk, “UBS Analysts: Longterm Contracted Nuclear Plants Also at Risk of Shutdown.” SNL Financial, 24 June 2016. 472 Westinghouse, “Westinghouse Acquires CB&I Stone & Webster, Inc.”, Westinghouse Electric Company, 27 October 2015, see http://www.westinghousenuclear.com/About/News/View/Westinghouse-Acquires-CB-I- Stone-Webster-Inc, accessed 16 June 2016. 473 Phil Chaffee, “Westinghouse’s Strategy in CB&I Stone & Webster Acquisition”, NIW, 2015,3. 474 Walter C. Jones, “More delays for Plant Vogtle”, Savannah Morning News, 11 December 2015, see http://savannahnow.com/news-latest-news/2015-12-11/more-delays-plant-vogtle, accessed 15 June 2016. 475 NIW, “Vogtle Costs May Have Reached $21 Billion”, 11 Decemer 2015. 476 SNL Interactive, “Ga. PSC staff expects additional delays in Vogtle nuke construction project”, 30 June 2016. 477 Roddie Burris, “SCE&G asking for $852 million more to finish Summer nuclear plants”, The State, 13 June 2016, see http://www.thestate.com/news/business/article83609292.html, accessed 15 June 2016. Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 136 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016
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A MYCLE SCHNEIDER CONSULTING PROJEC
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The project coordin
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EBRD Chernobyl Decommissioning/Spen
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TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Nuclear
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Foreword by Tomas Kåberger 1 The W
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Executive Summary and Conclusions K
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WNISR classifies 36 Japanese reacto
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AREVA Debacle (new episode). The Fr
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Fukushima Prefecture, 70 percent of
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Introduction A major accident, like
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the past two decades, nuclear power
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There were three exceptions in 2015
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In the first half of 2016, three re
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The current world fleet has a total
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However, many of those projects (48
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Table 2: Reactor Construction Times
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Figure 11: Construction Starts in t
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large-scale new-build. Having asses
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Figure 15: Age Distribution of 164
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timeframe are highly unlikely given
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The IAEA says that, “seven countr
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for four units equaled approximatel
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Over the past year, the design sele
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In Turkey, up to three projects are
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electricity generating company (EÜ
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However, Rosatom highlighted the
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eportedly considering “suspending
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start in 2020 and commercial operat
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floating reactors. 160 There is als
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nonetheless suggested that the proj
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Nuclear Finances: Corporate Meltdow
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in the U.S. in 2013 from US$5/MBTU
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decides not to proceed with Hinkley
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market capital for renewable energy
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apply across the whole European mar
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Supervision and Administration Comm
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export market to countries such as
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Conclusion on Corporate Finances Th
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Sequence and Origin of the Accident
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a source of carbon dioxide to smoth
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Figure 29: Cumulative I-131 Concent
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In total, TORCH-2016 (The Other Rep
Page 85 and 86: in Lithuania, Kozloduy units 1 to 4
Page 87 and 88: The ISF-2 has been completed, pre-c
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Page 91 and 92: around 4.4 m 3 /hour. 270 Therefore
Page 93 and 94: Current status of workers The gover
Page 95 and 96: The government is aggressively seek
Page 97 and 98: (Full-scale Thyroid Screening Progr
Page 99 and 100: Costs 315 TEPCO continues to pay co
Page 101 and 102: contamination. In all parameters li
Page 103 and 104: However, the average thyroid dose i
Page 105 and 106: • The Global Energy Assessment 20
Page 107 and 108: decisions for the construction of n
Page 109 and 110: consecutive year, making up about 7
Page 111 and 112: US$43 billion and wind power was US
Page 113 and 114: Figure 39: Changes in EU Nuclear, S
Page 115 and 116: hydro renewables power generation a
Page 117 and 118: Annexes Annex 1: Overview by Region
Page 119 and 120: The November 2013 edition of the In
Page 121 and 122: its rated power 374 and until 26 Ma
Page 123 and 124: ebuilding its Gentilly-2 nuclear at
Page 125 and 126: LTEP, released in December 2013, co
Page 127 and 128: The U.S. reactor fleet provided 798
Page 129 and 130: units had received a license extens
Page 131 and 132: the capacity market auctions, the p
Page 133 and 134: subsidies already. First, Illinois
Page 135: Conservation (DEC) to deny the plan
Page 139 and 140: Pending Combined Operating License
Page 141 and 142: traditionally been sited, but also
Page 143 and 144: projects only after Sanmen-1 ‘suc
Page 145 and 146: geographically the nuclear plant th
Page 147 and 148: (US$6.6 billion), 546 to as low as
Page 149 and 150: work on site in India for six AP100
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Page 153 and 154: 2010 Strategic Energy Plan, which h
Page 155 and 156: The options for how such targets wo
Page 157 and 158: seismic fault line at the site. The
Page 159 and 160: The IRRS team concluded that the NR
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Page 163 and 164: declared for the reactor and while
Page 165 and 166: However, observers saw a “dramati
Page 167 and 168: Despite the government’s commitme
Page 169 and 170: end of March 2014, unit 1 of Lungme
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Page 173 and 174: The following section provides a sh
Page 175 and 176: espectively over one month and two
Page 177 and 178: On 22 December 2015, FANC authorize
Page 179 and 180: In parallel, Fortum Power has been
Page 181 and 182: levels. It now looks plausible that
Page 183 and 184: The Hinkley Point C Saga - A French
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for lifetime extensions, before 3/1
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and coal-fired generation fell back
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announced in April 2004 that his go
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nuclear energy, in the form of dire
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for the £16 billion (US$30 billion
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to begin operating in 2024. 829 How
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2019. 839 In December 2015, BKW off
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assist in financing. 851 Westinghou
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Hungary has only one nuclear power
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concluded that when making assumpti
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in 2012 and 2013. 893 However, the
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of the MNPP [Medzamor Nuclear Power
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eactors at the site has been put ba
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Ukraine has 15 operating reactors,
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Annex 2: Japanese Nuclear Reactor S
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Comments WNISR considers that the 1
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Notes: Top: Air dose at 1 m height
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Annex 5: Status of Lifetime Extensi
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Plant Grid Connection Extension App
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Tomas Kåberger has a MSc in Engine
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Annex 7: Abbreviations ABWR AEA AEC
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GPSC GUE/NGL GWEC IAEA IANS IAS ICC
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PLEC PLEX PPA PRIS PV PWR PXE RAPS-
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Annex 8: Status of Nuclear Power in
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Annex 9: Nuclear Reactors in the Wo
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Country/Reactors Units MWe (net) Co
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15 Delayed again. A further delay o
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38 Delayed several times. This esti
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CONSULTING

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