A quick look at market trends for old nuclear plants shows the return of optimism. With deregulation in the 1990s, electric utilities offered to sell old nuclear plants and other generating facilities. But the outlook for nuclear power was bleak. Plants built for hundreds of millions were picked up for tens of millions. In 1999, a Maryland utility became the first to gain NCR approval to extend the life of a nuclear plant.
New efficiencies keep the nuclear plants up and running, too.
The new efficiencies make nuclear energy an attractive alternative to fossil fuel plants. John Reed, president of Capital, a consulting firm, advises utilities selling power plants that as long as natural gas prices stay above historic averages, nuclear plants will have some cost advantages. But environmentalists remain dubious because there is no long-term solution to the nuclear waste problem. Moreover, said Sarah Barczak of Georgians for Clean Energy, nuclear plants do release radioactive emissions that have been measured in rain, soil, vegetation, surface and ground water and in fish samples. Georgians for Clean Energy said in opposition to re-licensing Hatch that cesium 137, which collects in muscle tissue, has been found in elevated levels in sediment downstream from the plant on the banks of the Altamaha River.