Contacts: Cyrus Reed, 512-740-4086,
Karen Hadden, SEED Coalition, 512-797-8481, or Tom Smitty Smith, 512-797-8468
Environmental Groups prepare to tell NRC meeting about Exelon: Nuclear
Plants are not the answer They are Not Safe, Too Risky,
Too Expensive, and Not Needed
( Victoria, TX) -- A coalition of environmental and
consumer groups and their members are preparing to ask
tough questions and comment at a public meeting scheduled
in Victoria, Texas on August 7 th concerning Exelon’s
proposal to build a nuclear power plant in the area.
Cyrus Reed of the Sierra Club will comment, “nuclear
power takes too long to build, is too expensive, too
risky and unsafe. Nuclear power is not the solution
to help Texas meet its power needs. There are cheaper,
cleaner, and more sustainable energy solutions.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is holding
a public meeting in response to the announcement by Exelon – currently
the United States largest operator of nuclear plants
-- that the company wants to build a gigantic new double-wide
nuclear plant some 12 miles from Victoria using a new,
unproven technology known as ESPWR, and about 75,000
acre-feet of water in an area already troubled by recent
drought.
“We’ve been down this road before,” noted
Cyrus Reed, Conservation Director of the Lone Star Chapter
of the Sierra Club. “The utility industry
sold Texas on nuclear power plants at Comanche Peak and
the South Texas Project and consumers have been paying
the ‘stranded’ costs ever since. Meanwhile,
the nuclear industry expends valuable water resources,
more destructive uranium mining contaminates South Texas
aquifers and mining sites around the world; and radioactive
waste piles up on-site at nuclear power plants with no
long-term disposal facility.”
Exelon will be talking and listening as the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission holds the informational public
meeting Thursday evening in Victoria, just miles from
the Gulf Coast hurricane territory.
While Exelon has announced their intention to submit
an application for the nuclear units in September, the
design has yet to be certified and no license application
has been received.
Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the Sustainable
Energy for Economic Development (SEED) Coalition noted, “It
doesn’t make sense to have a public meeting before
the license application is available for people to look
at. The public needs to know what it is they are commenting
on. A license application by another company NRG who
want to expand the Matagorda County South Texas Project
was so incomplete that the NRC halted their review.”
Missing from the Exelon application, for example, is
any idea of the cost involved or even how much water
would be needed to run such a plant. Earlier this year,
Exelon signed a two-year initial contract with the Guadalupe
Blanco River Authority -- which would set aside 75,000
acre-feet of water.
“The rush to build new nuclear power
plants is simply an attempt to take advantage of federal
subsidies while they are available, and then hope to
pass the building, operating and decommissioning costs – and
any liability from accidents -- off on the public,” noted
Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public
Citizen’s Texas office. “Analysis
by both Moody’s and by independent consultants
is putting a price tag of $12 to $17 billion for the
proposed nuke in South Texas by NRG, and we would expect
the Victoria plant to cost even more due to its new
unproven design and the increasing rising costs of
uranium, steel and cement.”
Karen Hadden explained, “The cost of
solar concentrating power plants, solar panels, wind
energy, and especially energy efficiency measures has
come down and are now more economical than any new
nuclear plant. This means that investing in nuclear
power with all of the risks of accidents, terrorist
attacks and the impossibility of ever being able to
deal with radioactive waste is foolhardy and outrageous.”
With the most recent ERCOT projections reporting that
Texas’ existing generating capacity will meet its
reserve margin needs until at least 2013, the Sierra
Club’s Reed said that it makes better sense to
invest in energy efficiency, demand response and emerging
renewable technologies like wind, solar, geothermal and
ways to store energy.
Reed said, “Just last month the Public
Utility Commission approved a massive transmission
line plan to West Texas that will lead to 18,000 MWs
of wind coming on-line within five to 10 years. Exelon
should get on board, and also look at the potential
for solar and geothermal energy along the Gulf Coast,
which on per-kilowatt basis will generate far more
jobs than nuclear. Nuclear itself will take billions
of investment and years to complete and will do nothing
to help energy costs or meet our present demand – in
fact it will likely force prices to go up to pay off
the upfront costs.”
The SEED Coalition, Public Citizen and Sierra Club
are sponsors of the website NukeFreeTexas.org, which
has additional information on the dangers of nuclear
power in Texas.
In the meantime, a new group – the Texans for
A Sound Energy Policy Alliance – has also been
posting information and questioning the wisdom of the
proposed Victoria plant through local billboards, ads
and a website, http://tsepanow.com/.
The NRC will hold the public meeting from 6:30 p.m.
to 9:30 P.M on this Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at the
Victoria Community Center, Dome, 2905 E. North Street.
