All the ways you are paying for nuclear power at Turkey Point ... by gimleteye

Thanks to the Sun-Sentinel for printing this OPED by South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard that shines an unusually accurate light on FPL and its nuclear ambitions at Turkey Point. Stoddard's editorial reveals how FPL is gaming the system to cram two new nuclear reactors in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The biggest challenge facing the United States in the halting effort to stop climate change is the role of the nation's big utilities in throttling the most efficient measures to reduce power consumption at the consumer level. Sure: FPL has its demonstration projects in solar and wind, but the company will not budge from the model of generating electricity through centralized, massively expensive plants so long as government rewards the wrong corporate behaviors. That's the "free" market speaking.

FPL's nuclear program is the wrong move in the wrong place

Philip Stoddard
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 28, 2011

Under our American capitalist model, corporations issue bonds to raise money for new projects. But here in Florida, our Legislature allows a publicly traded utility to take our money, never repay the principal, and charge us 10 percent interest on whatever it builds with our dollars. So long as a "regulated" utility can claim to be planning a new nuclear reactor, it can bypass Wall Street and take the money directly from ratepayers like us ahead of time.

This amazing scam is perfectly legal under FL Statute 366.93, known as the Early Cost Recovery, or officially "Cost recovery for the siting, design, licensing, and construction of nuclear and integrated gasification combined cycle power plants." An electric utility can take our money up front for any and all of the following:


"all capital investments, including rate of return, any applicable taxes, and all expenses, including operation and maintenance expenses, related to or resulting from the siting, licensing, design, construction, or operation of the nuclear power plant, including new, expanded, or relocated electrical transmission lines or facilities of any size that are necessary thereto"

Is this a great capitalist country or what? More like what.

Here in Florida, the big publicly-traded utilities are drawing up nuclear plans to take full advantage of Early Cost Recovery, plans that include new four-lane access roads across southeastern Everglades wetlands and new transmission lines across the Everglades and eastern Miami-Dade County. How much could FPL charge ratepayers up front for this project? FPL hasn't said yet, but we can make an educated guess based on how much Progress Energy plans to charge their customers for a similar nuclear project in Levy County. Progress Energy has submitted an early cost recovery schedule that peaks out at $69 per 1000 KWH. Adjusted for the difference in number of customers, FPL's monthly rate increases would come to about $50 per 1000 KWH. This charge would add 48 percent to my family's monthly electric bill.

In fact, FPL is already charging us up front for planning, engineering, lobbying, promoting, and litigating for this project. As of today, Florida Power & Light has spent $268 million in Early Cost Recovery funds, and now is seeking an additional $186 million for 2012. And if FPL overcharges us or never completes the project, do we get our money back? Nope. Here's the beauty of it for the shareholders: to get free money for desired infrastructure upgrades, FPL never actually has to build nuclear reactors, just plan them, and convince the state to OK the Combined Operating License Application, or COLA.

So let us contemplate FPL's proposed plan to build two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point on the shore of Biscayne Bay at an "overnight" cost (cost if built tonight) currently estimated at $24.3 billion, a figure that could double with cost overruns typical for the industry. That would make four nuclear reactors on a hurricane coastline at the edge of a metropolitan area with over 4 million people, sandwiched between two National Parks. As my wife used to ask our young daughter, "Is that a good idea or a bad idea?"

It now seems unlikely that FPL would build the Turkey Point 6 and 7 nuclear reactors even if the COLA were approved. Fossil fuels are too cheap to make nuclear plants commercially viable. Natural gas prices are low, and FPL is contemplating replacing their old oil-burning plants TPN 1 & 2 with so-called "clean coal" plants. And, although FPL doesn't like to talk about it, the cost of photovoltaic solar panels is dropping like a rock while the cost of nuclear reactors is taking off like a rocket. This year, the prices crossed over, making solar cheaper than nuclear. Solar is expected to reach "grid parity" by 2016, achieving the same prices as fossil fuel generation.

Nuclear advocates love to remind me that the sun doesn't shine at night, but solar makes a great replacement for the pricy electricity from "peaker" generators that supply the peak demand experienced precisely when Florida's sunshine makes our air conditioners draw the most power.

To build the next generation of energy infrastructure and create a lot of jobs at the same time, there's no better industry than installing distributed solar on the commercial and residential rooftops of South Florida. Make the power where it's used when it's needed the most, and sell the extra back to the grid through "net metering." The municipalities of southeast Miami-Dade County are creating a "Green Corridor" for financing of small-scale solar installations, the brainchild of former Cutler Bay Mayor Paul Vrooman. It's also why we were horrified at the attempt to kill net metering in the recent Renewable Energy bill that (fortunately) died in the Legislature this spring.

At this moment, the best bang for our carbon-free energy buck is neither nuclear nor solar, but rather energy efficiency. Several studies have shown Floridians can reduce energy consumption by 25 to 30 percent just through making buildings more efficient. If we reduced consumption by only 10 percent, we'd never need to add another power plant. Retrofitting buildings makes construction jobs that are sorely needed now. It's carbon-free and good for the environment. What's not to like? "Not in our business plan" an FPL executive explained at the shareholder's meeting.

But it could be in yours. The Harum-Alvarez family built a 2,500 square-foot house that uses $45 in electricity a month for a family of four. It only cost 5 percent more than a regular house. And if you live near the coastline, you might be encouraged by the example of Miami Beach Commissioner Deede Weithorn. Her son constructed a wind turbine as a high school science project. The family mounted the turbine on their TV antenna tower and began making electricity. They added a second turbine and got their FPL bill down to $60 per month, impressive for a 3,000 square-foot house.

But even if new nuclear reactors are not approved or built, we still have trouble here in South Florida. FPL is also proposing to "uprate" their existing nuclear plants at Turkey Point and St. Lucie, industry-speak for turning up the heat to make more power. If increasing the heat and pressure inside a reactor vessel that's been bombarded by neutrons for 40 years is such a good idea now, why wasn't it done when the reactors were newer and less brittle? Just to keep these old plants operating at all, the NRC has had to loosen the associated safety standards three times. Is this a good idea or a bad idea? If you haven't seen the photos of the giant crack in the reactor containment structure that wrecked the nuclear plant at Crystal River, Google these three words: Crystal River crack. Or try: Davis-Besse rust hole (click "images"). Or try: Brown's Ferry fire. After 600 gallons radioactive water spilled at Turkey Point, FPL buried the quarter acre spill site under six feet of earth to protect their workers from radiation seeping into the aquifer below. FYI, radiation in water from Turkey Point has been detected in the well field that supplies drinking water for South Dade and the Keys. Nuclear in America.

All of these issues were worrisome before the nuclear plants in Fukushima blew up, spewing radioactive particles as far as California. A spent fuel pool exploded after flooding disabled the cooling system generators for a day. Could that happen here? Could a hurricane swamp lower Biscayne Bay with a larger-than-predicted storm surge? Could backup generators or pressure valves fail as they did in Japan? Could a hurricane eye-wall tornado at Turkey Point toss a truck or barge against a generator room?

Even if FPL never builds another nuclear plant, they still want the state to approve their nuclear license for Turkey Point 6 & 7. This is the hunting license that allows FPL to charge us through Early Cost Recovery for the high cost of beefing up their transmission system with a series of new high voltage transmission lines through the Everglades and heavily populated areas of Miami-Dade County. FPL wants those lines to support fossil fuel powered plants, but rate payers can only be gouged up front for them if FPL gets approval for a license to build new nukes.

So we have serious energy problems in here in South Florida. FPL is seeking to turn up the heat at their old nuclear reactors -- the wrong move in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the recession, the utility-friendly Legislature is none too friendly toward the jobs engine of distributed solar power. And, thanks to Florida's Early Cost Recovery scam, if FPL receives approval on their Turkey Point 6 & 7 COLA, the hunting season will open on our bank accounts. Let the Governor and his Cabinet know your thoughts on Early Cost Recovery, nuclear plants, and "uprates." The Turkey Points at you.

Philip Stoddard is mayor of South Miami.