Was the $724 million/ 13% Uprate at Grand Gulf Worth it?

Well, this was a Entergy special Walmart Uprate?

$724 Million Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant Uprate Will Soon Create 4,000 Jobs Entergy is preparing for a 13 percent power uprate that will make Grand Gulf the most powerful single-reactor nuclear plant in the country.

South Mississippi Electric (2012) 

The GGNS EPU project was over budget in cost and time to complete. That construction delay, combined with three forced outages after the unit returned to service, resulted in nuclear energy accounting for only 10 percent of our energy dispatch, which was well below expectation

Major components replaced as part of the EPU included nine low-pressure feedwater heaters; two moisture-separator reheaters; the reactor steam dryer; two reactor feedpumps and turbines; high-pressure turbine and casings; the main generator and rotor; and the main transformers. Crews also installed an additional water well and conducted a variety of other smaller equipment modifications. 

Approval from the Advisory Committee for Reactor Safety and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate the unit at full EPU capacity was granted on July 19, 2012, at which time the plant personnel began steps to safely and methodically increase the plant’s production to the newly-licensed level, which added an additional 178 MW to the electrical grid.

2013

Grand Gulf Nuclear Station performed better in 2013 than in recent years, producing 91 percent of budgeted energy.