Many old U.S. reactors are still profitable only because their
capital costs were forced down the public throat during
deregulation, through other manipulations of the public
treasury, and because lax regulation lets them operate cheaply
while threatening the public health. But even that's no longer
enough. Dominion Energy wanted a whole fleet of reactors, then
backed down and couldn't even find a buyer for Kewaunee. As the
company put it: "the decision" to shut Kewaunee "was based
purely on economics. Dominion was not able to move forward with
our plan to grow our nuclear fleet in the Midwest to take
advantage of economies of scale". Ironically, Kewaunee was
recently given a license extension by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. Though Kewaunee may become the first U.S. reactor to
shut in more than a decade, it won't be the last: Two reactors
at San Onofre, between Los Angeles and San Diego, are down with
massive steam generator problems. The potential cost of
restarting them could easily run into the hundr