#Comanche peak nuclear power plant full#
#Comanche peak nuclear power plant license#

of New Hampshire, a relatively small utility that was driven into a bankruptcy court filing by cost overruns at its Seabrook plant, Texas Utilities has been profitable every year except 1991, when state regulators ruled that $1.4 billion in costs associated with Comanche Peak I could not be recovered from customers. The firm's parent company, Texas Utilities Co., has taken a financial battering from its nuclear investment but has generally remained profitable. TU Electric is the biggest electric utility in Texas and serves 87 counties in the northern and central regions of the state.

#Comanche peak nuclear power plant license#

The NRC, in announcing it had granted a license late Tuesday to run the plant at no more than 5 percent power during the start-up tests, said its inspectors 'will provide 24-hour coverage' of the 1,150-megawatt Westinghouse Electric Corp. It's a financial lemon, and we believe there are safer, cheaper options in Texas today' to generate the power needed in TU Electric's 65,000-square-mile service area. 'Everything about the plant seems to have problems. 'This plant was troubled from the moment of conception,' said Scott Denman, director of the anti-nuclear Safe Energy Communication Council. The company was forced to pay millions to settle a suit by whistle-blowers and to buy out partners who sued over management of the project. Some reports suggested the utility had cut corners to save costs. Workers and local watchdogs complained of flawed record keeping, shoddy construction and inadequate equipment. In the mid-1980s, inspectors charged that they had been urged by NRC officials to suppress damaging findings about construction safety at the complex. Council for Energy Awareness, the nuclear industry's public relations organization.Д¬onstruction of the Comanche Peak complex has been dogged by controversy for years. nuclear plants to 109, generating nearly 22 percent of the nation's electricity, according to the U.S. The licensing of Comanche Peak brings the number of active U.S. A third, in Oregon, shut down earlier this month. One in Massachusetts and one in California ceased operations last year. In fact, more nuclear plants are closing down than coming on line. No utility, public or private, has ordered a nuclear plant since 1978. Only the federal Tennessee Valley Authority, which is struggling to complete its Watts Bar plant and hopes to load radioactive fuel there in June 1994, still has any nuclear power facility under construction. The Clinton administration is advocating increased use of natural gas.Д¬omanche Peak II is the last reactor of any privately owned U.S. But now nuclear power is out of favor because of its cost, and coal is out of favor because of air pollution problems. It also reduced its dependence on natural gas to about 40 percent. The company spent about $10 billion to construct Comanche Peak I, licensed in 1990, and Comanche Peak II.

TU Electric turned to nuclear power and lignite, soft coal with a high carbon content and accompanying pollution problems. Because natural gas was thought to be scarce at the time, federal policy encouraged utilities to burn other fuels. When the facility was ordered in the early 1970s, company spokeswoman Joan Hunter said, TU Electric generated all of its power by burning natural gas. The start-up of Comanche Peak II, near Glen Rose, Tex., about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth, is in many ways a landmark in the unhappy history of nuclear power in the United States and an ironic symbol of the twists and turns in the nation's energy policy.

#Comanche peak nuclear power plant full#

Full commercial operation is expected to begin next summer. to begin low-power testing of the plant, known as Comanche Peak II. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a license this week for Dallas-based TU Electric Co. After more than 18 years of scandal, lawsuits and multibillion-dollar cost overruns, a giant utility in Texas has been authorized to throw the switch and turn on the reactor at the nation's newest nuclear power plant.