83% cost overrun on a 12% power upgrade, but no worries! The nuke operator will pass that through to the customers. Duke had the good sense to shut down Crystal River. Maybe we should stop the new nukes at Plant Vogtle, which have already run up more than twice the cost overruns of Monticello, before they cost us even more for power we could get much faster and on-budget through solar or wind energy.

Katherine Tweed wrote for IEEE Spectrum 16 July 2013, Minnesota Nuclear Plant Upgrade Is $267 Million Over Budget,

After being shut down for four months, Minnesota’s Monticello nuclear power plant will restart this week with an additional 71 megawatts of capacity, a 12 percent power uprate. The increased costs, however, will far outstrip the additional percentage of power production.

The project, which included maintenance, upgrades and the uprate, was budgeted at $320 million. But Monticello has cost overruns of about 83 percent, or $267 million, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The plant’s owner, Xcel Energy, has not released Continue reading →