Nuclear

Nuclear has shown itself to be a pretty reliable source of electric power with some hiccups: such as 1) 3 Mile Island reactor partial meltdown in 1979 , 2) the 1986 Deadly and Devasting Chernobyl Nuclear meltdown in Russia, 3) the 1989 no-confidence closure of Rancho Seco Nuclear plant in Sacramento, California due to high power costs and lack of reliability, 4) February 2010 radioactive water leak at Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vermont to just name a few.

Nuclear Power has supporters and detractors. Both are vehemently for or against Nuclear Power. Those for Nukes claim it is technologically superior to conventional electricity production, safe, less expensive and if allowed to reprocess the waste, virtually pollution free. Those against Nukes claim that it is basically unsafe since we can not foresee any event, costs too much and produces deadly pollution with a 1/2 life of thousands of years. Who is right?

NoGridUSA sees it like this: Nuclear Power still connects to the Electric Grid and the Electric grid is not where this country or any country for that matter needs to be. So it doesn’t make any difference who is right or wrong, we offer another alternative.

Many analysts have demonstrated that Nuclear Power Plant construction costs are actually the primary cost of nuclear power. When power plant cost is amortized as a part of kilowatt price, nuclear power becomes a much more reasonable the longer it operates (30-40 year Nuke Plant Life, iaea.org) If a plant experiences problems or time and technology change, and the plant is decommissioned, then the cost of nuclear power is extremely high.

NoGridUSA is suggesting a decentralized electric production system, where electricity is produced at the point of use. We are also going to seek ways to help mitigate Stranded Costs of Utility companies and their stakeholders. Nuclear stranded costs could be so high, that there would be no way to compensate for costs without the shareholders losing all their invested Capital.

The rush to new Nuclear Plants currently being proposed in Congress, as a panacea to Global Warming, is likely to make the move to decentralized power more difficult. No one likes to lose money, and when losing money, investors will fight tooth and nail to lose less or get the government to bail them out. The subsidies now being proposed by our government towards the new Nuclear facilities must be stopped as soon as possible before investors, taxpayers, and stakeholders are hurt.

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