Re: Dominion's Nuclear Units Among the Lowest Cost U.S.Performers

["Frank R. Borger_(FRB)" <frb@gammex.com>]

>>> "Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net> July 19, 2000 13:25 >>>
>Dominion's Nuclear Units Among the Lowest Cost U.S. Performers in 1999 

>Nucleonics Week, in its annual ranking of nuclear stations, reports 
>that North Anna Power Station was the second lowest-cost producer of 
>electricity in 1999 at $11.20 per net megawatt-hour generated, and 
>Surry Power Station was ninth lowest at $13.41 per net megawatt-hour 
>generated. 

Please excuse the possible waste of bandwidth on what might be considered trivia.

1) By my calculation, that works out to $ 0.0120 and $.0134 pre kW-hour, which
tells me that the distribution system and the overall overhead of billing, and the
myriad other costs are about 90% of my costs. By my gut reaction, production
costs of 1 cent per kWhour are "too cheap to meter." 

2) Do those costs include the cost of the plant, amortized over its lifetime? If not,
 what would that number be?

3) Can anyone provide actual (not green fantasizing,) production costs for
photovoltaic and/or wind? 

Sorry if you feel like wasting a delete key, but I really want to quote numbers to
some of my skeptical friends... (and if I lose friend or two, they weren't really friends anyway.)



Frank R. Borger - Senior Physicist, Gammex RMI
fborger@gammex.com phn 608-828-7289 fax 608-828-7500

How many physicists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one. According to Heisenberg, all you have to do
is observe the light bulb, and you change it.


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