Re: costs

[Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>]

Notwithstanding Heinlein (one of the great writers :-), as far as nuclear
energy is concerned, let's get it right: 

Lewis Strauss, AEC Chairman, 1954 (lawyer)

See one summary, based on a USCEA "Backgrounder" 1987: 
http://www.powerup.com.au/~dominion/ff/p06.htm

(Note: the salt analogy.  But consider: When nuclear capital costs were to be
VERY much higher than coal, with energy costs VERY low - and when metering
(meter readers, billing, etc.) were non-trivial, "too cheap to meter" was also
in the context of paying a fixed (monthly) cost for service, no matter how
much you use - like cable TV, they don't bill you by the minute!  :-)

A more 'official,' less credible, source:

"Despite the financial inducements the AEC offered through its power
demonstration reactor program, the capital and operating costs of atomic power
were certain to be much higher than those of fossil fuel plants, at least in
the early stages of development. Across the industry, the prospects of
realizing short-term profits from nuclear power were dim. An American
Management Association symposium in 1957 concluded: "The atomic industry has
not been--and is not likely to be for a decade-- attractive as far as quick
profits are concerned." When Lewis
Strauss made his oft-quoted statement in 1954 that nuclear power could provide
electricity "too cheap to meter," he was referring to long-term (and
far-fetched) hopes rather than to immediate realities. He knew as well as
industry analysts that the heavy investments required were a major impediment
to the growth of nuclear power."
http://www.nrc.gov/SECY/smj/shorthis.htm

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

"Neil, David M" wrote:
> 
> Actually, I think if you check you will find that Robert A. Heinlein used
> the phrase about 20 years before that in one of his short stories:  "Blowups
> Happen" which was published in Sep 1940, as I recall it.  I don't have it
> near to hand, and I'm working off protein memory, so I may not be completely
> accurate.
> 
>  Dave Neil              neildm@id.doe.gov
> 
> Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.
> 
> On Wednesday, April 26, 2000 11:03 AM, Bob Flood
> [SMTP:bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU] wrote:
> > >If I remember a previous posting to RADSAFE correctly, the "too cheap to
> > >meter" phrase was not initiated by anyone in the nuclear industry.  It
> was
> > a
> > >catchy phrase developed by the media after an AEC hearing on Capitol
> Hill.
> >
> > The origin of the saying does lie within the nuclear industry. Aubrey
> Wagner
> > was the Chairman of the Board for the Tennessee Valley Authority in the
> > 1970s and was more than an advocate of nuclear power, he was fan! At one
> > time he envisioned TVA operating literally at least one of every
> commercial
> > reactor design available in this country and set about to make it happen.
> > Most of the plants were eventually cancelled and TVA still carries a large
> > debt as a result. But it was Aubrey Wagner that, in the 1960's, uttered
> the
> > phrase "too cheap to meter."
> > ============================
> > Bob Flood
> > Dosimetry Group Leader
> > Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
> > bflood@slac.stanford.edu
> >
> >
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