Communities Surrounding Closed Nuclear Power Plants Face Terrible Challenges Moving ForwardTake the closure of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in 2014. It was purely political, not even myopically economic. It also devastated the local economy in Vernon, raised electricity rates in the state, destroyed Vermont’s hitherto excellent carbon footprint, and caused more gas and hydro imports. And as a slap in the face to the people of Vernon, Vermont paid top dollar for nuclear–generated electricity from Massachusetts.
Or take NextEra Energy’s closing of Iowa’s only nuclear plant, Duane Arnold, set for this year. Officials say closing the nuclear plant will provide as much as $42/year in savings for residential customers.
What? Save 42 bucks to lose 5 billion kWhs of carbon-free electricity by building two new gas plants for a billion dollars, or to spend $2 billion on new wind farms? To lose 2,000 local jobs? To devastate the local economy? Do the people of Iowa really understand this?
But it’s like this everywhere. Nuclear just needs a penny/kWh subsidy in most places, so accepting this level of loss is strange. Is a penny too much to save the planet? To save a local economy. Wind and solar get twice that and they have yet to approach nuclear in low-carbon power production.
https://www.globalenergyworld.com/news/traditional-energy/2020/10/26/communities-surrounding-closed-nuclear-power-plants-face-terrible-challenges-moving-forward
