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. In 1999, the Better Business Bureau ruled that Nuclear Energy Institute advertisements were misleading and that the industry should stop calling itself environmentally clean.
Nuclear plants continue to be sold.
One, he was quoted as saying in Georgia Trends magazine, that includes a renewed emphasis on coal and nuclear power. By next year, Georgians who generate their own power from photovoltaic cells or some other alternative source of energy will be able to sell the surplus to their local utility. That's the guts of Georgia Senate Bill 93, the recently passed bill expected to be signed by Gov. Barnes. It calls for net metering, which means that if you produce more power than you use you can sell it to your local utility at a set rate. Big industries in Georgia that have their own generating capacity already may do so.