Hard to believe, but the country’s biggest power company — the same one that once swore on a stack of fuel rods that nuclear power would always be a big part of how it generates electricity — is finally having second thoughts and, notably, saying so in public.
“Nuclear will continue to be an important part of energy supplies in the Carolinas,” Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good said this week in remarks to the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. “But whether or not new nuclear is a part of the picture remains to be seen.”
Translation? Duke Energy already owns a bunch of aging nuclear power plants in North Carolina, so they will continue to operate and provide electricity to Duke customers there. But Duke’s plans for new nuclear power plants — and Duke had proposed new nuclear in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida — are fading. Fast.
Plans for new nuclear generation near Raleigh? Off the table. Plans for two brand-new nukes in Levy County in Florida? Shelved.
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It’s understandable that Duke internally realizes more nuclear plants won’t happen, at least given today’s nuclear technology, the sky-high construction expense and a growing customer backlash to being so blatantly gouged. Good’s remarks this week appear to be Duke’s latest way of slowly admitting publicly what it knows privately.
Read more at Trigaux: After long love affair with nuclear power, Duke Energy hints romance is ending
