[p2p-research] catastrophic failure of nuclear energy projects in the northwest of the U.S.

[Michel Bauwens]

This passage appears in an interesting profile of a thai renewable energy
activist, at
http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/leisurescoop/20789/power-to-the-people

*Such an integrated resource planning process does not come out of a vacuum.
Chuenchom said during the 1970s and 1980s, the state governments of Oregon
and Washington were at a similar stage as Thailand is now: Planners had
projected a tremendous rise in power demands and up to 27 nuclear reactors
were thus slated for construction. The ambitious scheme fell in a
spectacular flop, however, largely due to delays, drastic cost over-runs,
and high interest rates. The electricity rates then skyrocketed by up to 500
percent; there was a severe drop in demand; and the failed projects prompted
the largest bond default, at the time about $2.25 billion, in US history.*

*In the end, only one nuclear plant was completed; four others in varying
stages of completion were shut down or ”mothballed” at a colossal cost to
rate-payers in Washington and Oregon.*

*”The rate-payers in the region became extremely irate,” described
Chuenchom. ”They staged protests and finally a law was passed which
stipulated that from then on every energy policy must be the ‘most
integrated and cheapest’ possible, and secondly, that energy efficiency must
always be the first priority.*

*”Moreover, another law in Oregon dictates nuclear reactors will be built in
the state only when the government can find permanent solutions to the waste
issue (and even then, a citizen referendum is still needed to authorise the
construction).”*


-- 
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