Times reader Bruce Vandiver criticized Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols in his Dec. 16 letter, “Member of PSC didn’t factor real human cost of nuclear power.” He cited nuclear power plant accidents of 1986 Chernobyl in Russian, 2011 Fukushima in Japan and 1979 Three Mile Island as reasons for his assessment.

The Chernobyl accident was due to an unstable reactor design that would be prohibited in the U.S. and most of the world. The Fukushima accident was due to faulty plant designs for three nuclear plants placed on an earthquake fault coastal region in which a 50-foot tidal wave overwhelmed many safety features. The Three Mile Island accident was due to faulty plant design features.

The overseas accidents could not happen in the U.S. because plant designs and locations are not acceptable in here.

Three Mile Island was an accident due to foolishness that produced no harm to humans and contained all damage within the reactor containment building. A 2007 assessment of property damage from the accident is estimated at $2.4 billion. The accident showed the nuclear power industry it could not trust the federal government to find all flaws in plant designs and operating procedures.

In 1979, utilities with nuclear power plants formed the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations to review designs and operating procedures for existing and new nuclear plants. Utilities pay for this service.

Nineteen percent of U.S. electricity comes from nuclear power plants with an annual production of 8 trillion kilowatt-hours. Assigning a value of 3 cents per kilowatt-hour for nuclear electricity (lower than electricity from coal or natural gas), annual revenue from nuclear electricity is $240 billion. Over the 50-year lifetime of commercial nuclear power, total generation is approximately 290 trillion kilowatt-hours with a value of $8.6 trillion. These income numbers make the $2.4 billion loss almost 38 years ago from Three Mile Island insignificant.

In 1983, the Reagan Administration ordered the nuclear power industry to charge a fee of 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour for all electricity generated to be set aside for waste disposal. This is small compared to the 3 cent charge for nuclear electricity. Annual collections at this time are $800 million and the fund is reported at $28 billion. Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels and permanent disposal of radioactive junk is a necessary requirement of nuclear power. A half-finished nuclear reprocessing plant is at DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory near Augusta. Starting the reprocessing of nuclear fuels would be a great infrastructure project for the incoming Trump Administration that would create thousands of jobs, satisfy a need and not cost taxpayers.

Commissioner Echols is familiar with everything written in this paper and spent extensive time visiting nuclear power plants and fuel reprocessing facilities. Of the 200 PSC members in our 50 states, he is by far the most educated about the advantages and problems of nuclear power.

James H. Rust
Atlanta