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A lot of it seems to come down to very, very agreesive regulation. Eg, plant designs got approved, work started, then the regulators came back and said "actually, you need to make some major changes to the design", so everything paused and some completed work was torn up, new designs were made, approved (slowly), and then work restarted from scratch. Then it happened again. And again. The changes weren't bad per se; in one case the regulators decided that the plant needed to be resistant to aircraft impacts; in another that it needed to be more resistant to tornados. But when you have a fantastically complex and expensive engineering project, going back and requiring retroactive changes after approval and after bg has already started is going to blow the budget to hell. And it did. From the Federal Register notice for the aircraft impact change: > In making these additions, the NRC is making it clear that the requirements are not meant to apply to current or future operating license applications for which construction permits were issued before the effective date of this final rule. This is because existing construction permits are likely to involve designs which are essentially complete and may involve sites where construction has already taken place. Applying the final rule to operating license applications for which there are existing construction permits could result in an unwarranted financial burden to change a design for a plant that is partially constructed. Such a financial burden is not justifiable in light of the fact that the NRC considers the events to which the aircraft impact rule is directed to be beyond-design-basis events and compliance with the rule is not needed for adequate protection to public health and safety or common defense and security. That sounds pretty reasonable. As the US government said, applying this rule where existing construction permists exist could result in "unwarranted financial burden" which is "not justifiable" and because the rule is "not needed for adequate protection". It's just a "hey, if you haven't started building yet, why not make it extra super duper safe?" rule. And why not! But the Georgia plant, at this point, didn't technically have "construction permits", but it did have certified designs, and signed firm contracts for engineering, procurement, and construction, had already submitted its certified costs and schedules to state regulators, and begun manufacturing long lead time components. The cost impact was enormous, but they were still required to go through it. This regulatory environment is excellent for ensuring that nothing dangerous gets built, because nothing will get built. Is that wise? I suspect not. See: https://www.ans.org/news/article-1646/root-cause-of-vogtle-a... https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-westin... https://atomicinsights.com/nrcs-imposition-of-aircraft-impac... |
https://www.ans.org/news/article-1646/root-cause-of-vogtle-a...