[ RadSafe ] Shoreham and Rancho Seco and Nuclear Fleet Performance

[George J. Vargo]

A few comments on the recent nuclear power thread, and not in response to
any particular posting.

Shoreham indeed finally received its full power operating license after many
years of struggling with construction delays, serious quality control
problems and a protracted battle over the efficacy of its radiological
emergency preparedness plan.  What sealed the deal on Shoreham's closure was
essentially a buyout wherein the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA; a
creation of the New York State Legislature formed to facilitate Shoreham's
demise and provide alternative sources of power generation and transmission
for Long Island consumers) took ownership of Shoreham for the sole purpose
of decommissioning it.  At the same time, the NY State Public Service
Commission granted the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO, the private
electric utility that constructed Shoreham) rate increases of 5% per year
for 10 years.  Given such a financial incentive and the chance to rid itself
of the liability of Shoreham, it would have been irresponsible for LILCO's
Board of Directors not to have accepted the package.  LILCO's stock prices
soared, just as electricity rates did on Long Island.

Rancho Seco was an entirely different mess.  The Sacramento Municipal
Utility District (SMUD) was (is) a relatively small publicly-owned electric
utility that operated a single nuclear power plant (I do not recall what
other generating assets they actually owned).  They were a small
organization that was seriously overextended and simply lacked the resources
to properly operate and maintain the facility.  High personnel turnover and
equipment failures from inadequate maintenance were chronic and the plant
operated at a very poor capacity factor.  The voters finally enacted a
referendum under which the plant would be closed if it could not maintain a
reasonable capacity factor over a period of time (about two years as I
recalled.)  The facility never attained the required capacity factor and was
subsequently closed.  SMUD had no business being in the nuclear power
business.

All of the weak actors in the US have either sold out, closed, or contracted
the management of their nuclear plants to larger entities with proven record
of success.  There may still be some realignment in the Midwest.  It's
interesting to review the 2004-2004 net capacity factors of individual
reactors in the May 2005 issue of nuclear news.  The numbers are pretty
impressive

>100%		1  (yes, this can occur under some very favorable operating
conditions)
95-100%	12
90-95%		37
85-90%		39
80-85%		11
<80%		4

One of the bottom 4 is Brown's Ferry Unit 1, which has been shutdown since
1985 and is in the process of being recommissioned after a 20 year-long
outage.  Another is Davis Besse, which was closed for much of the period for
reactor vessel head replacement.  The other two operated in the 77-79%
range.  Not bad overall.

George J. Vargo, Ph.D., CHP
Senior Scientist
MJW Corporation
http://www.mjwcorp.com
610-925-3377
610-925-5545 (fax)
vargo at physicist.net