GE head says nuclear power "really hard" to defend financially by SIGNYM

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GE head says nuclear power "really hard" to defend financially

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Friday, August 10, 2012 13:27
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Monday, August 6, 2012 3:48 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
In a Financial Times interview this week, Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE, said nuclear power was “really hard” to defend financially, when compared both with gas-fired generation and certain renewables. “At some point, really, economics rule,” he added. Mr Immelt is not some disinterested bystander. GE, one of the pioneers of civil nuclear power in the 1950s, still produces reactors through a joint venture with Hitachi of Japan.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0bc5c4be-dd7c-11e1-8be2-00144feab49a.html#ix
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And that's including the fact that nuclear power gets significant subsidies from the federal government just like oil companies. But UNLIKE oil companies, nuclear operators get government-based insurance against catastrophe, because there is no way in hell a nuclear operator could possibly manage the financial fallout (so to speak) of a major nuclear accident.

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Monday, August 6, 2012 10:52 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Yah, I am a more than a bit cheesed off at just about ALL power/energy providers around here right now.

First off there's Fermi, which we never really wanted to begin with, almost blew up Detroit, and has been a boondoggle from the very get-go.
Then there's the fact (helpfully aided by a reg which FORCED the utility companies to actually tell us where that power comes from) that way too goddamn much of our electricity comes from coal, which makes plugging in a pure electric vehicle around here just a matter of deferring the pollution up the supply line...

And then there's fucking Enbridge, who cannot be trusted to maintain their goddamn pipelines, resulting in a huge spill around here a while back, another one recently, and now they wanna run ANOTHER one through here, which despite enormous opposition from the folks in the region the damn politicos went and rolled over for them - a chicken that itself will come to roost quickly cause maliciously shitting on your constituents DURING an election was plain fucking stupid...
Oh, and not just the mess, the oh-so-convenient excuse (although with others which are obviously manufactured) resulted in fuel prices rocketing past four bucks a gallon round here - needless to say Enbridge and those who failed to even slap them on the wrist, who went and licked their boots instead, are on most peoples shitlist around here.

And then there is DTE, who of course when the money rolls in claim the grid belongs to them, but when its time to maintain or repair it wanna defer the costs onto the public - which has resulted in the thing hanging by a thread, a huge outbreak of fires not long ago, and extended outages if a sparrow so much as farts, complete with the inevitable blatant lies about restorations times - this is NOT hyperbole, even a light RAIN will knock out power for 800-3000 people in the Wayne/Washtenaw region, every single goddamn time.
Now, rather than fix this, they went and STOLE, I mean outright STOLE, $37,000,000.00 from the public budget to invest in these goddamn Itron "smart" meters, which are not UL listed, violate FCC regs, are not at all secure, happen to be potentially dangerous - and make NO effort to fix the decayed and falling apart grid they meant to attach them to.
They also violated local moratoriums and quite possibly state law in forcibly installing them - especially having done so without any opt-out program and without regard to customer input on the matter.

This hits me personally and I find it especially vile, as I have a condition which can be triggered and worsened by EMI interference and for the last day and a half I have had ringing in my ears so bad I cannot even use a telephone, not that my telephone WORKS anymore cause the signal fratricide (as these things are transmitting on 900Mhz and 2.4Ghz) has rendered phones, modem and wireless equipment useless in this vicinity.
TWO of them things caused the destruction of three hard drives, cablemodem, PS3 console, and caused the whole office phone system to need replacement - and now there's TEN on the side of this building, all right together in a pack, not more than thirty feet from me at this very moment, which explains why I woke up with a headache, ringing ears and nausea which has not gone away or mitigated since.

They're not secure either, the data stream ain't even encrypted and while I am sure it saves DTE a bunch of money not having to pay so many people to read the meters, no one for a second believes that savings will be passed on, if anything the opposite, since these widgets have been PROVEN to read on average 50-300% higher than actual use, AND no doubt DTE will throw some kind of time-of-day rate so they can financially fuck people for having the gall to run their A/C when its actually hot, cause heaven forfend they upgrade THEIR end of the grid to properly fucking loadshare, oh no...

No matter WHAT anyone (usually industry shills or front companies) might say about FCC compliance or safety individually, having TEN of the goddamn things in a single rack is bloody dangerous, a little thing none of them thought about prior to this crap, oh and did I mention they're not UL Listed either cause they don't meet even those safety standards ?

Oh, and any attempt to call them about this on a phone that works (as in, somewhere ELSE which still has an analog meter) results in phone-tree runaround for about an hour, finally dumping into a foreign call center whos personnel offer endless polite and mangled english variations on "Tough Shit!".
Well tough shit for them too - I ain't payin them a fucking dime till this is resolved, the only reason any of my electronics work at all here right now is cause I went and shelled out for some very heavy shielding, which in combination with the wrecked equipment leaves me swinging to the tune of around $2,000.00 out of pocket.

No way would I trust these motherfuckers with a nuke plant - never ever.
I'd rather not burn coal either - but this whole mess right here, look at it - they're supposed to be using the federal and other funding they get to update the grid, but instead they not only take that money, but illegally take more, and then do shit that profits them, harms others, and did not invest ONE IOTA of any of it into repair or upgrade of the rotted out, falling apart grid they're hookin this shit up to.

They CAN NOT BE TRUSTED - and the Gov-Corp utility monopoly bullshit is what causes this.
Ergo, I say we nationalize the fucks, I won't say the Gov can't possibly screw it up worse, but at least they'll do it cheaper and are far more accountable about it.

-Frem

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012 3:18 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

This would be one time it would be nice if you quoted the entire article, so we wouldn't have to sign up for Financial Times to read it.

Thanks.

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Friday, August 10, 2012 1:27 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I'm trying to respect their copyright, as they specifically request on the website to use links, not copy-paste. But the signup is free.

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