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Economy
Rick Perry helps ailing Georgia nuclear plant with $3.7 billion in financing
2019-03-23
[Washington Examiner] Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Friday issued a $3.7 billion federally-backed loan guarantee to keep the Vogtle nuclear power plant under construction in Georgia afloat after years of cost overruns and project delays.

Perry made the announcement after touring the site in Georgia with utility industry officials involved in the project, state regulators, and the governor of Georgia.

He said the Vogtle project is "critically important" to the administration’s goal of revitalizing and expanding the U.S. nuclear industry. "A strong nuclear industry supports a reliable and resilient grid, and strengthens our energy and national security," he said.

Perry also noted that Vogtle is an energy infrastructure project "with a massive scope employing thousands of workers" that is rebuilding a highly skilled nuclear workforce and supply chain for the future.

But while Perry was touring the site, critics argued that the new financing places the taxpayer on the hook for $12 billion if the power plant flounders.

Related: Zachs - Southern Co. (SO) Up 2.7% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Continue?
Posted by:Besoeker

#7  Texas is the energy leader of the Country. They should be emulated.
Posted by: newc   2019-03-23 16:49  

#6   if the power plant flounders.

And those same critics will do everything they can to make it so.
Posted by: AlanC   2019-03-23 08:16  

#5  How much equity is the taxpayer getting for their 3.7 billion?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-03-23 07:36  

#4  Rick Perry is thoroughly qualified to make this decision. As a long term governor of Texas his back ground involving Commanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Glenrose, Texas, which is a safe facility, qualifies him to make this investment call. Commanche Peak was going to add 2 more units but that was suspended due to the huge success of fraqqing in Texas bringing far more natural gas and oil than anticipated locally that under cut profitability of the two additional nuclear units at Commanche Peak for Texas.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147   2019-03-23 07:22  

#3  Usually Design-Build, so if the client's needs, whims, and desires aren't accurately transmitted at the start, it requires contract changes in scope/cost - always upwards
Posted by: Frank G   2019-03-23 07:18  

#2  Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning on February 20 said construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle is on track and could possibly beat the current regulatory approved startup dates for the AP1000 units.
Fanning spoke on the company’s fourth-quarter 2018 earnings call. He said Georgia Power, a Southern Company subsidiary and the majority owner of Vogtle, has ramped up the work schedule at the site near Waynesboro, Georgia, and said if that productivity continues the first of the two new reactors could come online as early as April 2021, seven months ahead of the current schedule, with the second coming online in April 2022.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889   2019-03-23 07:05  

#1  ...after years of cost overruns and project delays.

The problem with most of these projects is that they are 'one of' and always 'Yuge'. No standardized design of medium size as in Europe and constantly subject to changing design regulations. Where's the graft in that?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-03-23 06:27  

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