Thursday, September 24, 2009

Nuclear Power

So as we all know City public Service (CPS) Energy has proposed a plan to expand the South Texas Project (STP) Nuclear Plant, located outside Bay City, from two to four nuclear reactors. According to the San Antonio Express News, the big question arising from the community of San Antonio is if there will be enough water in fast-growing, drought-prone South Texas to meet the needs of two more nuclear reactors. Mike Kotara, CPS Energy's Vice President in charge of energy development, said most of those painting nightmare scenarios of the STP's reactors running out of water either do not understand or ignore the plant's plans to guarantee water is available, even during drought.
I have been researching the debate for a couple of days and have not yet figured out which side of the fence I fall on. So far I'm leaning towards being against the expansion because I'd rather save energy than use more. Also, there are not many pros to this issue, as opposed to cons. One of the cons on the expansion is that CPS customer's bills would increase about 5% every other year until 2016 when it would drop to a 3.7% increase then to a .07% increase in 2018, according to a slide show presented by CPS energy executive. CPS Energy owns 40% of the nuclear power plant and would need to invest $5.2 billion in the expansion. Mayor Julian Castro says a 40% ownership is too risky and costly, a lesser ownership stake would be better for the city.

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