Nuclear Decommissioning Truss may be bankrupt…starting with Humboldt Bay
From Bloomberg Financial News:
At the edge of Humboldt Bay in northern California lies a relic from the heyday of U.S. nuclear power.
The reactor was shut down in 1976. The remaining cost to decommission the plant once and for all -– cleaning up lingering radiological dangers, dismantling the remains — will be about $441 million, according to its owner, PG&E Corp.
The question is who will pay — for Humboldt Bay, and for dozens of other reactors that are in the process of closing or might soon. Nuclear operators like PG&E are supposed to lay up enough money to cover the costs, similar to how corporations fund pensions. Turns out, most haven’t.
PG&E’s Humboldt Bay trust fund, for instance, is currently $308 million short, according to a company filing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. PG&E customers will shoulder the cost in the form of higher electricity bills. READ MORE:
BUT IT WASN’T SUPPOSE TO COST THIS MUCH MONEY…THAT’S WHAT PG&E CLAIMED BACK IN 1959–LISTEN TO THIS VINTAGE COMMERCIAL !
