Cancelling a nuke is what’s really in the best interests of utility customers: Southern Company and Georgia Power take note. MidAmerican Energy just added another to the long list of nukes permanently closed or not to be built. Time to add Plant Vogtle to that list.

In the DesMoinesRegister.com yesterday, MidAmerican decides against Iowa nuclear plant: MidAmerican Energy says design plan isn’t approved; environmentalists celebrate

MidAmerican Energy has scrapped plans for Iowa’s second nuclear plant and will refund $8.8 million ratepayers paid for a now-finished feasibility study, utility officials said Monday.

The utility has decided against building any major power plant. That’s because there is no approved design for the modular nuclear plant it envisioned, and there are too many questions about limits on carbon emissions from a natural gas plant, the company said.

“We opted for what was in the best interest of our customers,” MidAmerican vice president for regulatory affairs Dean Crist told The Des Moines Register.

The decision ends, for now, a three-year controversy over the future of nuclear energy in Iowa and how to pay for a possible nuclear plant. Iowa has one nuclear power plant, the Duane Arnold plant near Palo.

Crist said a feasibility study started in 2010 found that two 700-acre sites near Thurman in southwest Iowa and Wilton in southeast Iowa would work for a modular nuclear plant, which was expected to cost around $1 billion and to be built in phases.

Only $1 billion? That’s less than the cost overruns at Plant Vogtle! Time for Georgia to cancel that boondoggle.

-jsq

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