Get all the details from Idaho Samizdat.
Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
Comments
Seems to me that Dr. Diaz is clean on this. As a former chairman and professor emeritus of nuclear engineering (he was my faculty advisor), he can certainly advise potential licensees about the process and the engineering. He can even be a principal at this stage.
A potential conflict MIGHT arise years down the road if he lobbied the NRC during the license application process or during operation. However, the project is certainly YEARS from that stage and I believe there is a temporal limitation of such restrictions.
Transition Power is talking about a new industry structure for nuclear where project developers get the ball rolling then sell the project to bigger money at some stage when the political risks are clearer and the economics can pass due diligence.
This business model happens all the time with independent power producers and especially with renewables. The guys in Fresno California and Boise Idaho are trying something similar with their nuclear projects.
I'll let Utahans judge the ethics of their own politicians!