Two South Carolina utilities have abandoned two nuclear reactors they were working on in the state. The construction project has cost them $8 billion so far, and it was nowhere near completion. Estimates were as high as $25 billion to bring the reactors online, and given the dropping cost of power, it no longer made sense for the utilities to continue. The episode is a blow to the reputation of the nuclear industry, an impact from which it might not recover. Nuclear generation has been on its heels for some time. After a burst of reactor building, construction largely stopped for decades and those projects that were tackled were often problematic. Now the industry can add two more reactor shells to projects around the US that have never been completed. One should ask why any utility would consider splitting atoms given the headaches that result. It is still early to call the nuclear industry dead, but it is on life support.
When PR Fails
Airlines with any kind of customer listening know customers are complaining about space. The incredible shrinking seat. But the carriers have done nothing but skinny the chairs some more. It is a failure of PR and the courts are now involved. “Judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday directed the F.A.A. to “adequately address” a petition that raised safety concerns about the increasingly cramped conditions on airplanes.” It didn’t have to be this way. The airlines could have controlled their greed and allowed adequate seat room for all customers, even those in economy, but they continued to press their luck. Now the government is involved, the power has been taken from their hands and there will be regulation. The F.A.A.,which had ducked the issue, is under orders to examine the situation and act. The agency is examining the ruling and determining what it is going to do. Maybe next time passengers have complaints there will be a sympathetic ear.