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Nuclear Plants: Complex MegaProjects Generate Cost Overruns

Five reactor projects are under way in the U.S., and all are behind schedule and over budget.


Five nuclear reactor projects are under way in the U.S., and all are behind schedule and over budget, raising concerns about whether nuclear power is truly "affordable" energy. Challenges such as planning, management oversight and technology have been pinpointed as factors that contributed to ballooning costs, although "every project is different. These are complex megaprojects," says Mike Skaggs, the Tennessee Valley Authority's nuclear construction chief.

It almost feels like the 1970s and '80s again with so much news about every new and under-construction nuclear plant registering cost overruns and delays.

Five reactors are under construction, and all are reportedly over budget and behind schedule. What that ultimately means to electric rates remains unclear.

• Unit 2 at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, Tenn., is up to $2 billion over budget and three years behind, according to the Tennessee Valley Authority.

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Source: The Chattanooga Times Free Press


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