Nuclear powerHopes for quicker, cheaper ways to build nuclear power plants dim

Promises of building a more cost effective U.S. nuclear industry continue to face setbacks as alternative energy sources like natural gas become cheaper for utilities, while new models for nuclear plants face cost overruns. Nuclear reactor developers sought to build new plants using prefabricated Lego-like blocks to save time and reduce labor costs. “You can build these components in a closed environment,” Edward Day VI, an executive vice president for Southern Company, told regulators in a 2008 hearing. “Your productivity goes way up.”

Quality concerns, however, have cropped up, raising questions about whether nuclear power is still able to compete with other electricity sources. The first two nuclear reactor projects in the last sixteen years, Southern Company’s Vogtle plant in Georgia and SCANA Corporation’s VC Summer plant in South Carolina, are being assembled in large modules from parts built off-site at the Shaw Group’s Shaw Modular Solutions factory in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Itemlive reports that interviews and regulatory filings show that analysts consider the designs for the new nuclear reactors to be difficult or impossible to build. The Shaw factory in Lake Charles struggled to meet strict quality guidelines prompting developers of the two reactors to assign the building phase to new manufacturers. The first of the two new reactors at the Georgia and South Carolina sites were expected to be operating in 2016, but developers have pushed that timetable into early 2018. Southern Company expects to spend $646 million more than the budgeted $6.1 billion on its share of the project. Joseph Miller, a Southern Company executive tasked with building the Georgia plant still believes that building in modules will work. “Has it for the first units resulted in a lot of time savings? No,” he said. “But does it have promise? Yes.”

Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. N.V. (CB&I) acquired the Shaw Group in February 2013. The new owners of the Lake Charles factory have become more welcoming toward inspectors and allowed Southern Company and SCANA Corporation to conduct more oversight. The Lake Charles factory is now producing smaller pieces such as piping and valves, while firms in Oregon, Florida, and Virginia have been contracted to build the largest modules, Southern Company spokesman Brian Green said. “I think the Lake Charles facility is just on a learning curve that they can’t seem to get on top of,” said Anthony James, who monitors the South Carolina nuclear project for the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff, which oversees utilities. The factory is now sending partially completed modules directly to the construction site for inspection and repairs under the supervision of the utility companies.