Standards - current and past

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Gus makes a good point. Unfortunately, the reality is that the 
public, as well as the regulatory bodies, tend to assess what we did 
years ago based on current standards. One of the biggest problems in 
the nuclear reactor world was continually rebuilding the plant to 
meet current standards. Considering that many plants were designed 
and built based on specifications from the 60's, there were many 
changes required, and significant cost. In many cases, these costs 
were passed on the the consumer, and in some cases, the stockholder. 
Regulatory related costs during the 80's resulted in ~ 60% of all 
costs. This didn't help with the cents/Kw charged, the benchmark for 
comparing different energy sources. Eventually, everyone woke up, 
including the regulatory bodies, and companys stopped the continual 
re-building the plant, except for the significant design issue which 
had a high confidence in affecting safety and well-being of the 
workers and public.

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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