Nuclear Power’s Costs Are Highest

* Your article “San Onofre Proposal Generates Renewed Debate” (Aug. 21) addressed the current controversy regarding the proposal to close the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Although the article did an excellent job in presenting the various sides of this issue, there was one significant error which should be corrected.

In a sidebar to the article a comparison was made of the relative costs of different sources of electricity in 1993. This indicated that the cost of using natural gas to produce electricity was roughly 3 cents per kilowatt hour, 1.22 cent/kwh for coal, and only 0.537 cent/kwh for nuclear power. This indicates that nuclear power was by far the cheapest source of electricity in 1993. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The figures cited in this sidebar only account for the fuel cost of producing electricity, ignoring all the other associated costs.

Southern California Edison’s total cost for nuclear power in 1993 was over 8 cents/kwh. SCE’s comparable cost of gas-generated power was under 5 cents/kwh, as was the cost of electricity from coal resources. The incomplete values presented in your article present a misconception that nuclear generation is inexpensive. Rather than being a bargain, nuclear power is one of the primary reasons California has among the highest electricity rates in the country.

ROBERT KINOSIAN

Analyst, Division of Ratepayer Advocates

California Public Utilities Commission