Ms. Hermes. France safely generates eighty percent of its electricity from nuclear power. The U.S. Navy has safely operated dozens of nuclear powered vessels since the 1950s. The crews of these ships are confined in close proximity to the reactors (often submerged) for months at a time. The technology and methods exist for safe permanent storage of radioactive wastes. Nuclear power can be an important part of the bridge from the age of dirty fossil fuels to the “green” energy sources of your dreams. Far more have been killed or disabled in coal mines than nuclear plants. Those who magnify nuclear costs and risks while minimizing benefits and safety record are contributing to our ongoing energy crisis.

Bb

Well said sir.

UE, now AmerenUE, canceled the Callaway II nuclear plant because UE’s projections for demand were all wrong and they then tried to stick it to ratepayers for their $200 million mistake.

The PSC first said CWIP prevented canceled plant costs from being recovered, the Missouri Supreme Court disagreed and remanded the case for consideration under general ratemaking priciples.

I assisted the Missouri Public Interest Research Group (MoPIRG) in being the only party involved in the subsequent ratecase to urging the PSC to disallow all the canceled plant costs-PSC Staff and the Public Counsel wanted to give UE $100 million-and the PSC did follow our position.

It should be the shareholders of UE which should bear the risks of investments and management mistakes, not the ratepayers of Missouri. CWIP keeps the risks of investments where they belong, on those making the investments. Our current PSC has shown its complete willingness to allow anything the utilities want to be charged to ratepayers, including its Chairman meeting with utility executives before and during pending cases.

CWIP keeps the balance between the public and utility investors where the regulators and legislators have abandoned ratepayers to whatever latest trends in mistakes or lies put forward by utilities about what rates they get or rates of return are reasonable.

Ms Hermes

Our nation has decades of succesfull Nuclear Power generation.
Yet the misconceptions about Nuclear Power, radiation, remain.

The Ameren Callaway plant produces approximately 15% of Ameren’s
production. It is the cheapest per killowat of any plant
in the Ameren system.

The power being produced is not by burning a fossil fuel. It is
clean power. Believe it or not, but a coal plant of equal production
puts more radioactivity in the atmosphere, than a nuclear plant.

Had Xrays lately? You were subject to more radioactivity than
the average Nuclear Power Plant worked is exposed to in several years.
Does your watch have luminous dials? Put it by a Geiger Counter.

The French, I hate to say it, have made tremendous strides in
reducing the half life of Spent Nuclear Fuel. The technology is there.
If our Federal Government would live up to the promise made to build
a National storage facility, then Power companies would not be faced
with the extra expense of storing their spent fuel on their own.

I am far more worried about a terrorist easily obtaining chemicals
that could kill far more people with less effort, than trying to
obtain some spent fuel rod in a storage facility.

Our nations electric infrastructure needs to be upgraded, modernized.
Especially to compete in an increased global economy. Nuclear power
has a proven track record of success.

IF a utility comes along to build a windmill/solar electric farm. Will
you be a staunch supporter of CWIP, if the utility needs financial
help?

I do not see Ms. Hermes accounting of the costs after a facility has been built on CWIP being placed into the rate base not affecting her expenses. The associated costs are allowed to be passed on to the consumers as the facilities come online, CWIP only causes these costs to be expanded and exaggerated until the facility comes on line at which time these costs can be recovered. The CWIP protected none of our wallets as Callaway 1 came to fruition, and as to the costs to our bodies the NRC and DNR have tracking mechanisms in place to prevent any event from effecting us from Callaway 1, Callaway’s management and staff works hard to the protection of the general public as being the number one priority.

What most of the general public do not realise nor understand is that Nuclear fuel is not ‘Owned’ by the independent utilities that use it; the US DOE and our Federal government are the actual owners or more bluntly, WE are the owners and lease that material to the utilities to produce power from it. We are the responsible parties as to the eventual ’safe storage of this material. And these power producing materials are far from any form of weapons grade nuclear material.

As to the Ageing Plants, at some nearer than distant point in the future by her accounting process, we will be paying what the market will bear as to utility electric cost and these dollars as well as the construction jobs and revenue will be lost to our border states as our in-state and low cost plants both coal and nuclear are shut down; is she ready for $4-600.00 monthly electric bills or the limiting of use(rolling blackouts) due to our out-state suppliers feeding more lucrative contracts.

Public Utilities in Missouri are allowed to recover their expense of product generation/delivery plus a determined profit margin by the state PSC, the UE shareholders are the investors for the capital to pay the bills until the rates income can pay the shareholders back plus their tidy dividends, they are not responsible for AMEREN UE’s nor any other corporations debt as AMEREN is indebted to them.

As to Callaway 2, it was cancelled when ALCOA decided to cancel the aluminum smelter near Jefferson City, the power for it was to pay for Callawy 2 and not the citizens of the state even though the excess power would have been distributed to the grid as well.

Margaret,

With oil heading towards $200/barrel and concerns re greenhouse gases, nuclear energy is deservedly getting a second look. The reason nuclear power plants have such high costs is because environmental activists lobby politicians and put up countless legal roadblocks to the construction of new plants. Your so-called “green” energy sources won’t be viable for at least 50 years, if ever. Meanwhile, Americans are spending billions to light and heat their homes and factories and fuel their vehicles.

I’m not aware of any “catastrophic accidents” in the US involving nuclear power. Can you please elaborate on that claim? Meanwhile, we’ve had to deal with carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for decades, so there is no free lunch for supplying America’s energy needs.

As for nuclear waste, the US has a designated site for disposal at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. What a coincidence that Democrat Knucklehead Senator Harry Reid (Nevada) blocked the opening of the site and now refuses to allow oil exploration in many promising areas of the US.

France produces about 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, and utilizes one proven design to hold down costs and speed construction. With 20-foot-thick concrete walls in the containment area, they’re about as secure as anything Man can build. I would worry more about nations like North Korea or the former Soviet satellite states as sources for terrorists.