Fort Calhoun Power plant
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Fort Calhoun Power plant
I heard from a reliable inside source that the plant will be coming online this week. They are only waiting for orders to push the button, maybe as soon as tomorrow.
That is surprising. After the story about that plant's so-called "negligence" went national, I thought for sure it was going to be dismantled and turned into a giant brick of concrete.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. - Winston Churchill
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- nebugeater
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From Dec 6
OWH
http://www.omaha.com/article/20131204/N ... 09483/1707
From Dec 4
WOWT
http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/OPPD ... 80691.html
OWH
http://www.omaha.com/article/20131204/N ... 09483/1707
From Dec 4
WOWT
http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/OPPD ... 80691.html
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
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Long-idled Fort Calhoun nuclear plant gets green light to restart
Cody Winchester / World-Herald staff writer wrote:The district began the process of restarting the plant Tuesday. It will take five or six days to attain full power.
The hippies who think that we can completely rely on solar and wind power were hoping that would happen. They didn't get their wish. Now that Excelon is in a 20 Â year contract to run the plant, hopefully it will stay off of regulator's radar.S33 wrote:That is surprising. After the story about that plant's so-called "negligence" went national, I thought for sure it was going to be dismantled and turned into a giant brick of concrete.
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Do we know that they were not buying a sizable Amount of power from the grid? Â Wouldn't this be a lower cost generatining option? Â Don't know the answered but these are just two questions that come to mind for me before saying it is not needed.bbinks wrote:I do not see the need to reopen this plant. This summer was the highest demand for OPPD, and the other plants kept up just fine.
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
I'm nearly certain this included buying power from the grid. Â They weren't self sufficient without Ft Calhoun. Â That was at least some of the logic behind their last rate increase. Â Increased cost of power due to having to purchase.bbinks wrote:I do not see the need to reopen this plant. This summer was the highest demand for OPPD, and the other plants kept up just fine.
The reality is that there's a fixed cost to maintaining Ft Calhoun, whether running or not. Â Might as well get the upside of the power output. Â Only way costs would go down at that site is with a full decomissioning...
Oil, gas, and nuclear will be with us for decades to come, but recent developments/improvements in alternative sources of power have made them close to competitive with traditional sources. I think the long term goal will see us moving toward decentralization----i.e., homes and businesses generating their own power. Â The traditional grid system is very vulnerable (I'm sure most of you remember the 2003 power failure that paralyzed the East coast). Â At the end of the day, it looks like the hippies will win.jessep28 wrote:The hippies who think that we can completely rely on solar and wind power were hoping that would happen. They didn't get their wish. Now that Excelon is in a 20 year contract to run the plant, hopefully it will stay off of regulator's radar.S33 wrote:That is surprising. After the story about that plant's so-called "negligence" went national, I thought for sure it was going to be dismantled and turned into a giant brick of concrete.
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Hippies Schmippies!ricko wrote:Oil, gas, and nuclear will be with us for decades to come, but recent developments/improvements in alternative sources of power have made them close to competitive with traditional sources. I think the long term goal will see us moving toward decentralization----i.e., homes and businesses generating their own power. The traditional grid system is very vulnerable (I'm sure most of you remember the 2003 power failure that paralyzed the East coast). At the end of the day, it looks like the hippies will win.jessep28 wrote:The hippies who think that we can completely rely on solar and wind power were hoping that would happen. They didn't get their wish. Now that Excelon is in a 20 year contract to run the plant, hopefully it will stay off of regulator's radar.S33 wrote:That is surprising. After the story about that plant's so-called "negligence" went national, I thought for sure it was going to be dismantled and turned into a giant brick of concrete.
Tesla v Edison Redux
AC is great for motors, furnaces, and other things that suck watts. Â DC is great for electronics. Â Ever look around your house and think about how much 120V AC is being crunched into 6 V DC and a bunch of heat? Â What would be cool is to see an engineering project of using solar and small scale wind to charge an array of deep cycle marine batteries via an off the shelf solar controller (plans are on line and the components are largely at Radio Shack or otherwise commercially available).
Run AC to the house for the motors, but use the DC flow for the electronics, thus bypassing need for power supplies that waste so much of the electricity we consume.
I am not an EE, so I don't know all the calculations, but I would be inclined to use my 5 watt solar panel and get a marine battery and controller to do some small scale experiments if anyone is interested.
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Wind power is already within 5.5% of the cost of electricity from coal and more economical than "clean" coal plants. Without the associated risk of rising coal costs. Source
A large amount of the cost of nuclear is the capital costs in building the plant. An already built plant is one of the greenest, most cost effective power solutions available.
A large amount of the cost of nuclear is the capital costs in building the plant. An already built plant is one of the greenest, most cost effective power solutions available.
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Re:
OPPD will be voting whether to shut this down by the end of the year...nebugeater wrote:Do we know that they were not buying a sizable Amount of power from the grid? Â Wouldn't this be a lower cost generatining option? Â Don't know the answered but these are just two questions that come to mind for me before saying it is not needed.bbinks wrote:I do not see the need to reopen this plant. This summer was the highest demand for OPPD, and the other plants kept up just fine.
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Re: Re:
I saw that come across the news feed too. I am betting the vote is a formality and the decision to close it down is already made.Coyote wrote:OPPD will be voting whether to shut this down by the end of the year...nebugeater wrote:Do we know that they were not buying a sizable Amount of power from the grid? Â Wouldn't this be a lower cost generatining option? Â Don't know the answered but these are just two questions that come to mind for me before saying it is not needed.bbinks wrote:I do not see the need to reopen this plant. This summer was the highest demand for OPPD, and the other plants kept up just fine.
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
People in high places at OPPD need to be fired but we know that won't happen. What was the point of gearing the Fort Calhoun station back up again just to shut it down. How many hundreds of millions were wasted? We are to believe they just now realized that reopening the plant was a bad idea? Oh and hey someone slap me for having the audacity to think, but what happens 5 years down the road from now when there is a shortage of electricity on the grid and we have to pay a much higher price for it. At that time you can just here it now that suddenly OPPD has to build a new power plant so we can be secure and provide our own electricity again. And the beat goes on.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
You start to wonder if a publicly owned utility makes sense anymore. Perhaps OPPD should be sold to a private company who knows what they are doing. There is no doubt by being publicly owned, OPPD is not saving us any money; if anything they are costing us more.GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:People in high places at OPPD need to be fired but we know that won't happen. What was the point of gearing the Fort Calhoun station back up again just to shut it down. How many hundreds of millions were wasted? We are to believe they just now realized that reopening the plant was a bad idea? Oh and hey someone slap me for having the audacity to think, but what happens 5 years down the road from now when there is a shortage of electricity on the grid and we have to pay a much higher price for it. At that time you can just here it now that suddenly OPPD has to build a new power plant so we can be secure and provide our own electricity again. And the beat goes on.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Didn't they say part of the reason they're closing the plant is because it's too expensive? All the while, wind power is now just as cheap as coal. It seems to me that switching to wind is a win for people who want cheap energy without the carbon output and risk of radioactive fallout.choke wrote:GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:People in high places at OPPD need to be fired but we know that won't happen. What was the point of gearing the Fort Calhoun station back up again just to shut it down. How many hundreds of millions were wasted? We are to believe they just now realized that reopening the plant was a bad idea? Oh and hey someone slap me for having the audacity to think, but what happens 5 years down the road from now when there is a shortage of electricity on the grid and we have to pay a much higher price for it. At that time you can just here it now that suddenly OPPD has to build a new power plant so we can be secure and provide our own electricity again. And the beat goes on.
You start to wonder if a publicly owned utility makes sense anymore. Perhaps OPPD should be sold to a private company who knows what they are doing. There is no doubt by being publicly owned, OPPD is not saving us any money; if anything they are costing us more.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
That sounds about right, plus natural gas. My issue is that OPPD spent about $200 million to get the plant back online after the flood. Surely, the signs of the nuclear plant costing more to operate than what it was returning had to be visible at the time of the flooding. Why not just shut it down then instead of wasting $200 million?daveoma wrote:Didn't they say part of the reason they're closing the plant is because it's too expensive? All the while, wind power is now just as cheap as coal. It seems to me that switching to wind is a win for people who want cheap energy without the carbon output and risk of radioactive fallout.choke wrote:GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:People in high places at OPPD need to be fired but we know that won't happen. What was the point of gearing the Fort Calhoun station back up again just to shut it down. How many hundreds of millions were wasted? We are to believe they just now realized that reopening the plant was a bad idea? Oh and hey someone slap me for having the audacity to think, but what happens 5 years down the road from now when there is a shortage of electricity on the grid and we have to pay a much higher price for it. At that time you can just here it now that suddenly OPPD has to build a new power plant so we can be secure and provide our own electricity again. And the beat goes on.
You start to wonder if a publicly owned utility makes sense anymore. Perhaps OPPD should be sold to a private company who knows what they are doing. There is no doubt by being publicly owned, OPPD is not saving us any money; if anything they are costing us more.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Indecisive management and a chaotic management style. It happens in both public and private sectors.choke wrote:Why not just shut it down then instead of wasting $200 million?
Does anyone (else) remember back when the nuclear plants were first under construction that they (the ubiquitous "they") were predicting that nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter" and such?
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Omababe wrote:Indecisive management and a chaotic management style. It happens in both public and private sectors.choke wrote:Why not just shut it down then instead of wasting $200 million?
Does anyone (else) remember back when the nuclear plants were first under construction that they (the ubiquitous "they") were predicting that nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter" and such?
I remember watching the Fort Calhoun plant being built. Right before the plant went on line they had an open house one Sunday in 1972 or 73 and a big ad in the paper inviting all of people could walk around all over inside the plant and check it out. I was only 12 but I remember being disappointed when I found out that they only used the nuclear reaction to heat the steam which then turned the turbines to make electricity. I had figured that they somehow had a way to stick a wire in the middle of the nuclear reaction and suck out all that energy that way. I am no engineer but I think using nuclear energy to heat steam to spin the turbines is Flintstonian. Surely after all these years you would think they could of thought of a more efficient way of tapping into nuclear fusion then from heating steam.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Sounds like there was some serious lack of foresight with how the direction of the energy industry would be going.choke wrote:That sounds about right, plus natural gas. My issue is that OPPD spent about $200 million to get the plant back online after the flood. Surely, the signs of the nuclear plant costing more to operate than what it was returning had to be visible at the time of the flooding. Why not just shut it down then instead of wasting $200 million?daveoma wrote:Didn't they say part of the reason they're closing the plant is because it's too expensive? All the while, wind power is now just as cheap as coal. It seems to me that switching to wind is a win for people who want cheap energy without the carbon output and risk of radioactive fallout.choke wrote:GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:People in high places at OPPD need to be fired but we know that won't happen. What was the point of gearing the Fort Calhoun station back up again just to shut it down. How many hundreds of millions were wasted? We are to believe they just now realized that reopening the plant was a bad idea? Oh and hey someone slap me for having the audacity to think, but what happens 5 years down the road from now when there is a shortage of electricity on the grid and we have to pay a much higher price for it. At that time you can just here it now that suddenly OPPD has to build a new power plant so we can be secure and provide our own electricity again. And the beat goes on.
You start to wonder if a publicly owned utility makes sense anymore. Perhaps OPPD should be sold to a private company who knows what they are doing. There is no doubt by being publicly owned, OPPD is not saving us any money; if anything they are costing us more.
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
This is going to suck for Blair.
First we lost Dana now this.
Honestly I kind of expected it though. They pay people who work at the plant a ton. Most make over 60,000 per year.
First we lost Dana now this.
Honestly I kind of expected it though. They pay people who work at the plant a ton. Most make over 60,000 per year.
#SaveTheUglyGrainSilos2024
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
A friend of mine who works there just built a nice house North of the metro area a couple years ago. They've been posting a lot of pro nuclear power stuff on social media over the past few days.
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Fort Calhoun has obviously had it's problems over the years. Unfortunately for the employees and for Blair, it is just not cost effective to keep it operational. It costs OPPD around $50-$70 per megawatt hour to run Fort Calhoun while coal plants are typically $17/MWh and with the tax subsidies wind comes in around $1/MWh. With energy demand being as low as it has been, prices have been hovering around $20/MWh for a while now. With MidAmerican Energy producing such a large amount of wind energy in Iowa, they are able to flood the market with cheap power which puts many utilities in a tough economic position. Unfortunately nuclear doesn't fall into the clean energy category.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Not to split hairs, but they have not yet harnessed fusion technology. In this instance, it is a fission reaction that produces the power to spin the turbines. Fusion creates a much larger bang for the buck by comparison, therefore making it more difficult to bring it to fruition. I am not a pyhsicist, but if there was a more effective way of generating nuclear energy, we would likely have seen it. That's why there is such a push for wind right now. It's safe, cheap, clean, and effective.GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:Omababe wrote:Indecisive management and a chaotic management style. It happens in both public and private sectors.choke wrote:Why not just shut it down then instead of wasting $200 million?
Does anyone (else) remember back when the nuclear plants were first under construction that they (the ubiquitous "they") were predicting that nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter" and such?
I remember watching the Fort Calhoun plant being built. Right before the plant went on line they had an open house one Sunday in 1972 or 73 and a big ad in the paper inviting all of people could walk around all over inside the plant and check it out. I was only 12 but I remember being disappointed when I found out that they only used the nuclear reaction to heat the steam which then turned the turbines to make electricity. I had figured that they somehow had a way to stick a wire in the middle of the nuclear reaction and suck out all that energy that way. I am no engineer but I think using nuclear energy to heat steam to spin the turbines is Flintstonian. Surely after all these years you would think they could of thought of a more efficient way of tapping into nuclear fusion then from heating steam.
Go Cubs Go
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Does this mean all the stupid jokes will stop?
I can get pushed out because I'm "too much" for some. Then, an observer of me comes suddenly swooping in to "fill my shoes." People are always more accepting of the new one, because their feathers aren't truly ruffled by them. (Yawn) I can count on it every time.
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
According to the above the fold front page article in todays Sunday paper OPPD wasted over 400 million dollars getting the Fort Calhoun Plant running even though all the signs pointed to the fact that it was a bad idea. Nobody is going to be held accountable or fired. One can only conclude by the end of the article that we have been screwed over by the exact same entity that we created to protect us. OPPD was supposed to protect us from greedy businesses but whoever said OPPD was not a business is mistaken. The big shots and managers at OPPD are not protecting us but instead running a good ole boys club designed to funnel money into their own pockets irregardless if they do a good job or a lousy job. We don't need OPPD to protect us anymore. We can't afford their protection. We need to figure out how to make OPPD go away.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
I know that the Cooper station produces a little more energy, but why is Cooper viable energy for NPPD and Fort Calhoun a liability for OPPD? And why did OPPD need to bring in a Chicago firm to run Fort Calhoun? Cooper is solely ran by NPPD.GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:According to the above the fold front page article in todays Sunday paper OPPD wasted over 400 million dollars getting the Fort Calhoun Plant running even though all the signs pointed to the fact that it was a bad idea. Nobody is going to be held accountable or fired. One can only conclude by the end of the article that we have been screwed over by the exact same entity that we created to protect us. OPPD was supposed to protect us from greedy businesses but whoever said OPPD was not a business is mistaken. The big shots and managers at OPPD are not protecting us but instead running a good ole boys club designed to funnel money into their own pockets irregardless if they do a good job or a lousy job. We don't need OPPD to protect us anymore. We can't afford their protection. We need to figure out how to make OPPD go away.
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
As natural gas prices plummeted, OPPD leaders clung to expensive, inefficient Fort Calhoun
Cole Epley and Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writers wrote:Now, OPPD executives say the coming of cheap natural gas — what it calls a nail in the coffin of expensive and small nuclear plants such as Fort Calhoun — was tough to forecast back at the time. Yet signs were flashing all over the place that natural gas was falling and would keep doing so:
(Dollars per million Btu)
7/3/08: $13.58
4/9/11: $4.04 (Fort Calhoun shuts for refueling)
5/12/16: $2.16 (OPPD says Calhoun should shut down)
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Cooper is a larger plant. It's over 50% bigger than Fort Calhoun in terms of generating capacity. They can spread out fixed costs better.choke wrote:
I know that the Cooper station produces a little more energy, but why is Cooper viable energy for NPPD and Fort Calhoun a liability for OPPD? And why did OPPD need to bring in a Chicago firm to run Fort Calhoun? Cooper is solely ran by NPPD.
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
It's a public utility so they can be voted out of office, right?GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:According to the above the fold front page article in todays Sunday paper OPPD wasted over 400 million dollars getting the Fort Calhoun Plant running even though all the signs pointed to the fact that it was a bad idea. Nobody is going to be held accountable or fired. One can only conclude by the end of the article that we have been screwed over by the exact same entity that we created to protect us. OPPD was supposed to protect us from greedy businesses but whoever said OPPD was not a business is mistaken. The big shots and managers at OPPD are not protecting us but instead running a good ole boys club designed to funnel money into their own pockets irregardless if they do a good job or a lousy job. We don't need OPPD to protect us anymore. We can't afford their protection. We need to figure out how to make OPPD go away.
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Didn't Mort Sullivan run for OPPD?
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
That was a few years ago: http://web.archive.org/web/201112310533 ... livan.com/Coyote wrote:Didn't Mort Sullivan run for OPPD?
I didn't see him running for anything on the 2016 primary ballot. Maybe he decided to take this election year off and go fishing:
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Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
Usually when a business eliminaties hundreds of good-paying jobs, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth by public officials. (Case in point: ConAgra)
The closure of Fort Calhoun has prompted nothing but silence from the Omaha Mayor, Omaha City Council, and Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Why?
They should care. Many (if not most) of the soon-to-be-unemployed live in the Omaha metro. Many could end up moving away.
The closure of Fort Calhoun has prompted nothing but silence from the Omaha Mayor, Omaha City Council, and Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Why?
They should care. Many (if not most) of the soon-to-be-unemployed live in the Omaha metro. Many could end up moving away.
Re: Fort Calhoun Power plant
It's not Omaha's problem. The plant isn't in Omaha, or even in the same county. The closing is more of an issue for Blair, Fort Calhoun and Washington County.Dark Eyes wrote:Usually when a business eliminaties hundreds of good-paying jobs, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth by public officials. (Case in point: ConAgra)
The closure of Fort Calhoun has prompted nothing but silence from the Omaha Mayor, Omaha City Council, and Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Why?
They should care. Many (if not most) of the soon-to-be-unemployed live in the Omaha metro. Many could end up moving away.
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum