![]() ![]() Prices in a sulfur dioxide cap and trade scheme ended up being a fraction of the expected cost. Many utilities found they could ditch local, high-sulfur coal and buy low-sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Cheaper rail costs made existing coal plants cheaper to run and mitigated the pain of new laws to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Natural gas replaced underperforming power plants like Rancho Seco. The early 1980s saw the deregulation of both natural gas and railroads. ![]() Coal is cheap at the mine but expensive to move, requiring barge or rail to keep prices reasonable. Natural gas was heavily regulated, with new gas power plants de facto banned for some time. The government hamstrung nuclear's competitors in the 1960s and 1970s. Nuclear power plants were more expensive while also being unreliable. The average capacity factor was around 60% throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Safety controls increased the difficulty of building new power plants and required upgrades at existing power plants. The combination of utilities spending more to improve reliability and changes from the other events in the late 1970s make up the balance. Three Mile Island usually takes the blame, but analysis shows only about 12% of retrofit costs were from changes specific to that incident. Construction times for already under construction plants increased. These events generated a long list of deterministic rules, most of which are still in the books. Safety concerns increased after events at Brown's Ferry (1975), Rancho Seco (1978), and Three Mile Island (1979). Nuclear's Dark Period Accidents and Poor Reliability Ding Nuclear Nuclear power survived a dark period in the 1980s by increasing output from existing power plants, can it build on that success to grow again? Thanks to Bill and Josh for answering an endless stream of questions. Can Nuclear Power Manage Another Comeback? 2022 September 7 Twitter See all posts ![]()
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