Nuclear power suggested by Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority official

An old experienced banker once told me that if a farmer rented a piece of land for many years, sooner or later he would come to think of the land as his property. Is this the case with the powerful Alicea family?

Before the current managing director of AEE was hired away from PRASA (water utility) Juan Agosto Alicea was the managing director of AEE (he was also the former manager of PRASA and the Government Development Bank.) I believe he is now the Chairman of the board of AEE.

But France, like almost all nuclear reactor sites is NOT on one of the most seismically active locations on Earth. Puerto Rico has an earthquake nearly every day.

Then there is the issue of DE-commission. Every nuclear reactor that opens must someday be closed. Given Puerto Rico's past history with trash and garbage, is it rational to consider giving a Puerto Rico utility nuclear waste to dispose of safely?

There are gigantic construction contracts to be let if a nuclear reactor is built. They also cost BILLIONS of dollars to build and commission, so little if any money would actually be saved during the reactor's life. Is 'construction' the true motive behind such a proposal?

Here we are in one of the sunniest places in the Western Hemisphere. This place was made for movement to the next generation of making electricity, through wind, wave and solar means. In fact, in the last few years a company in California has developed a photovoltaic film that can be directly applied to roofs. It has a 30 year lifespan and can be applied to seal concrete roofs.

But the Puerto Rican legislature would have to pass legislation allowing individuals to deliver their excess power to the grid during the day (when MOST electricity is used in Puerto Rico) and draw on traditionally generated electricity at night,thereby avoiding the most expensive and polluting part of solar electricity--storing it for the night time in batteries.

Maybe that sort of modern thinking is something that is discouraged in the Alicea family? Maybe they prefer HUGE public projects to move Puerto Rico back into the Twentieth Century?

Maybe the PREPA officials should look into other alternative energy sources instead of the ones that will be shot down or harmful. Right now the energy being made is primarily oil fired generators. At the high oil costs and they aren't expected to go down ($4 a gal gas is a good indicator and $114 a barrel). Wind is good but only if there is wind, solar is good but only of there is light, sea is good and is always there, thermal is good and can be there too. Both are not as proven and very costly. How about the waste to energy plants that burn cleanly and convert garbage to electric power? The fuel is home grown (trash). it is environmentally safe and the government has been promising this for over 10 years (do a google on WTE in Puerto Rico and you would think it is there already- it isn't). Oh BTW the landfills are closing so the trash (WTE fuel) has no place to go anyway. Can the island officials and PREPA see the handwriting on the wall yet? Many have and say let's get the WTE plants here. The Solid Waste Authority is doing something about it and brining out a new specification for this technology within weeks. We don't see the same support from PREPA. Why? What is holding them back. Some reporter should question this and soon. Get rid of the trash and make electric power and recycle in an environmentally safe way. That is the proven track record of the last 20 years with this technology. Ask the EPA they love it and approve it because it exceeds the EPA limits for teh environment. some residents should start to look at this and why the projects have been held up. Money isn't a reason because they would be funded with private money not taxpayer money. So what is the hold up?

Another Gringo wrote:

Maybe the PREPA officials should look into other alternative energy sources instead of the ones that will be shot down or harmful...

How about the waste to energy plants that burn cleanly and convert garbage to electric power? The fuel is home grown (trash). it is environmentally safe and the government has been promising this for over 10 years (do a google on WTE in Puerto Rico and you would think it is there already- it isn't). Oh BTW the landfills are closing so the trash (WTE fuel) has no place to go anyway. Can the island officials and PREPA see the handwriting on the wall yet? Many have and say let's get the WTE plants here. The Solid Waste Authority is doing something about it and brining out a new specification for this technology within weeks. We don't see the same support from PREPA. Why? What is holding them back. Some reporter should question this and soon. Get rid of the trash and make electric power and recycle in an environmentally safe way. That is the proven track record of the last 20 years with this technology. Ask the EPA they love it and approve it because it exceeds the EPA limits for teh environment. some residents should start to look at this and why the projects have been held up. Money isn't a reason because they would be funded with private money not taxpayer money. So what is the hold up?

In such a small political microcosm one finds that those with vested interests are even MORE powerful than in a place like the US. WTE has constantly been shut down in Puerto Rico as somehow 'polluting' to the air. Of course it would be difficult to make the argument that it is MORE pollution than burning high sulfur bunker oil as is now being done.

The island is OWNED by developers and builders. The first Republican to ever win the Governorship in Puerto Rico owned the only cement company in Puerto Rico. He immediately started building cement highways around the island as soon as he was elected.

Send a reporter? From where? No one in the US gives a rat's patoot about the mundane issues of electricity and water in Puerto Rico, even those these are precisely two of the issues that restrict further industrial development in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico won't get out of this mess by merely burning its own trash, although I agree that is the sort of diversification of energy resources the future requires. But Puerto Rico needs to lead in the development of solar energy (actually, more solar energy is used here than most realize--domestic water is almost all heated with solar energy because HOT water is nearly as easy to store in that state than cold water.)

If things only worked in a logical manner in Puerto Rico our future would be radically different.

Puerto Rico is directly in the path of the trade winds. It is most of the time a breezy island. I could never understand why windmills are not used to generate electrical power in Puerto Rico.

In addition to using windmills, I would think solar panels could be another source for electricity. At least, solar panels as a private investment for homes.

I am under the impression that we have very limited resources to generate electricity with water power. It is very unlikely that a Hoover Dam could be built in Puerto Rico to generate electricity.

Does Puerto Rico have sufficient financial resources to pay for high cost nuclear power?

The only way things change on this Island is when enough is enough. We are paying $.23 per KwH and the fuel surcharge is increasing with NYMEX monthly. I have been in the Solar & Wind industries for a decade, at these rates payback to go off grid is now around 4 years.

I do not rely on the Gov't for water or light, it is in abundance here, and FREE.

Alt Energy fan wrote:

The only way things change on this Island is when enough is enough. We are paying $.23 per KwH and the fuel surcharge is increasing with NYMEX monthly. I have been in the Solar & Wind industries for a decade, at these rates payback to go off grid is now around 4 years.
I do not rely on the Gov't for water or light, it is in abundance here, and FREE.

Pardon my ignorance, but, Please, can you elaborate (unless you are referring a “pillo”) on how can one get free water and “light”…?

Thanks…

I mean, I know about obtaining water from a well, but free light...?
Are you referring to solar panels/batteries and such…?

Sure, I use both wind and solar to battery banks and have a 4" well with a solar pump and gravity feed cistern. The batteries are sealed and store enough for three days. All the systems are included in my property assessment as value add and am independent from the electrical grid and water.

Alt Energy fan wrote:

Sure, I use both wind and solar to battery banks and have a 4" well with a solar pump and gravity feed cistern. The batteries are sealed and store enough for three days. All the systems are included in my property assessment as value add and am independent from the electrical grid and water.

Are you getting at least 9,000 kHz per year…? Or enough to run plenty of light-bulbs, ceiling-fans, central A/C, and such, without worries…?

In a country in which the cemeteries, pets, and trees are not respected...Where fixing a broken
water main takes 3 weeks, with water leaks in between repairs, only a day dreamer will dream of nuclear energy in the island of ALI BABA and the
400 Hundred Thieves.

If they allowed private grid tie in this whole energy problem could be solved. They call solar energy a 'rich man's hobby' because they don't want anyone, rich or poor, making electricity and spoiling their little monopoly.

I live on the North coast and I see AEEs helicopter take the AEE managing director, Jorge Rodriguez, to work every morning from Aguada to San Juan, and then back at night. That's our money ferrying him around in a jet powered helicopter. It would be cheaper to give him a penthouse condo in Isla Verde or Condado.

The technology to make electricity from the Sun is getting cheaper every day and the price of electricity on the island is getting more expensive every day (as it is everywhere.) Fortunately for the AEE and PRASA, in Puerto Rico the people are sheep and goats, while the well connected are the predators.

It seems as if the current administration wants Puerto Rico to sink to the bottom of the sea, and fast. There are no plans to use alternative energy on Rodríguez's agenda or in AAV's platform. AAV is alleged to have received campaign funding from the Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica (completely illegal). The first thing he does when elected is give free reign to the AEE to continue raising power rates with no end in sight. These officials are sucking the life blood from the people of Puerto Rico. What happens when oil hits $200 a barrel next winter? We are being lied to constantly about the island's wretched economy. No major corporate investments will be made here with the AEE under Rodríguez's stewardship; what factory can afford to run with these power rates? Hillary and Obama both referred to Puerto Rico as a virtual sun and wind powerhouse, yet the AEE is investing in natural gas and coal generation, both guaranteed to skyrocket in price as we speak.
We need to demand that the AEE begin wind and solar farm construction, even if we have to protest in front of its fortress-like headquarters. Enough excuses. Denmark generates 25% of its power from wind alone. The initial cost issue is no longer an issue. Basta ya!

Question to readers. Would the Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) be the enforcing entity of this commercial nuke plant? Being a US territory equates to a US Nuke plant in the eyes of the world community. American public support of nuke power is fragile. You want it done right and safely do it now. While all eyes are on the topic.

The US will break ground on several, >12, new nuke plants over the next few years.

The hurdle is passed with the net metering laws and the recently signed laws. The AEE has to buy the power and connect the supplier to the grid. Now the next step is to see if the Government and politicians at ADS and AEE allow the right guys to actually build. There are a few companies that can pay to build one there. The rest are doing the smoke and mirror of leveraging if they win. They will use taxpayer money from bonds and grants. It can be done if THEY want it to work. Right now the hold up is the ADS. Wait another month and we will see

The WTE plants as proposed would burn trash as fuel yes. However, it also has treatment on the output stack gas to make the discharge into the air safe and are most times at least 99% below EPA standards (That can be verified by the EPA and the awards these plants get). Right now that is a heck of a lot lower than the diesel trucks on the highways. It is safe for the air and land. Secondly the plants will be recycling several materials like metals from the trash that is brought in for fuel. Third it will keep the landfills from growing. Not that they will when they are being shut down. 50% are closed already the rest are going very soon. That is a fact put out by Allen Steinberg who heads the District 2 EPA. Solar is great but cannot provide enough power at a reasonable cost to do much other than for personal use (and it works a max of half a day). Wind is great as long as there is wind. Geo thermal is also good for personal use but cannot make the kind of power that is needed. A WTE plant can light up the city of Caguas as example all day and night, while doing recycling duty and lessening the landfill requirements. It does this at a cost that is cheap. The private sector is also looking to pay for the building and not burden the taxpayers. It also makes jobs and will bring income to the Island as an extra. NO Bonds, No Taxpayer funding, funding from private sources from well financed companies with long good histories in themarket.. Just give them the permits to build and the government and EPA will also have controls to make sure they comply with standards. This is not incineration as our fathers knew it, this is not bringing in technology to rape the land and air. this is something that can work and be useful not harmful. Check it out the facts are available there are a lot on line in communities right now all over the country and the world. They are good neighbors and good businesses. If the Puerto Rican politicians and residents will only look into it and give it a chance it could be the best thing to happen to the Island in generations.

An island where they can not collect the garbage, nor they know juat to do with it, with nuclear reactors........SURE!!!!!!!!! kEEP ON DREAMING!
f o o l s!

PR Gringo wrote:

The hurdle is passed with the net metering laws and the recently signed laws. The AEE has to buy the power and connect the supplier to the grid. Now the next step is to see if the Government and politicians at ADS and AEE allow the right guys to actually build. There are a few companies that can pay to build one there. The rest are doing the smoke and mirror of leveraging if they win. They will use taxpayer money from bonds and grants. It can be done if THEY want it to work. Right now the hold up is the ADS. Wait another month and we will see

The AEE has actually proposed regulations for the implementation of net metering that require the meter be directly purchased from AEE exclusively and hooked up only by electricians qualified by an organization that doesn't exist. THEN one must purchase several permits from the government to 'allow' AEE to process the surplus electricity. Additionally, the price proposed for payment to companies that jump over these hurdles is less than 40% of the price paid to private electric generating plants contracted by AEE on a cost+profit basis.

In other words, AEE has placed so many roadblocks in the way of net metering that one can't legally be a part of the system. This is precisely what the management of AEE wants to happen. In the meantime, AEE is converting several of their generators to operate on natural gas which Puerto Rico has to purchase from abroad, build a cross-island pipeline to carry and keep requiring industry to pay for all the electricity used by the municipalities, all other government entities, the road lights (which burn day and night) and all the electricity stolen by the residents of public housing projects.

More of the same.