In Michael Grunwald's "Why Obama's Nuclear Bet Won't Pay Off," TIME Magazine nails new atomic reactors' exorbitant costs and the extreme financial risks of nuclear loan guarantees for taxpayers. However, it unfortunately and inaccurately gives a free pass to the atomic energy industry on such important issues as "emissions-free" electricity, safety risks, and the still unsolved radioactive waste crisis.]]>
An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, Friends of the Earth, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and others, has called for a National “Call Congress” Day of Action against nuclear power loan guarantees for Wed., February 24th. Please phone your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and help ring the phones off the hook all day long during business hours next Wednesday in Congress! Urge your Members of Congress to let President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu know that they are displeased that the first $18.5 billion in already-approved nuclear loan guarantees is being rushed out to unworthy applicants, increasing the already high risks that taxpayers will be left holding the bag for defaulted projects. Also urge your Members of Congress to block President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request to triple the nuclear loan guarantee program from $18.5 billion for new reactors, to $54.5 billion (and don't forgot about the $2 billion in already-approved loan guarantees for new uranium enrichment facilities!). See NIRS’s email alert as well as its website announcement of “Call Congress Day.” Also see Beyond Nuclear’s loan guarantee website for more information. And see NIRS's press release that clarifies the important point that these are not just loan guarantees, but actual loans as well being drawn from the U.S. taxpayer -- thus, they're getting us coming and going!]]>
President Obama himself, flanked by nuclear power industry unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (photo at left), today announced the awarding of an $8.3 billion, taxpayer-backed loan guarantee to Southern Nuclear Company of Georgia for its proposed twin-reactor expansion at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. Ironically, Plant Vogtle's currently operating twin reactor nuclear power plant was the poster child of cost overruns in the last generation of reactor building -- coming in at a whopping 13-fold, or over 1,000%, cost overrun. Such skyrocketing costs delivered the death blow to nuclear power plant construction in the United States, even before Three Mile Island melted down in 1979. In a follow up press conference today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu revealed his ignorance of the Congressional Budget Office's prediction that over half of new atomic reactors will default on their loan repayments. This will, of course, leave taxpayers holding the bag for many billions of dollars per failed project. Financial analysts are unconvinced that such federal largesse is sufficient to achieve the nuclear power industry's coveted "renaissance." They have even pointed out that, despite President Obama completing President Bush's unfinished favor -- at taxpayer expense -- for the nuclear power industry, it is too little, too late to achieve a nuclear power relapse in this country. Beyond Nuclear immediately issued a media release denouncing President Obama's decision. Beyond Nuclear board member Karl Grossman wrote "Obama's Change on Nuclear Power" in response to today's nuclear loan guarantee announcement. Bob Alvarez of Institute for Policy Studies responded to President Obama's pro-nuclear power, and even pro-nuclear weapons, policies with "Nukes Aren't the Answer." In fact, the environmental and taxpayer coalition opposed to nuclear power loan guarantees erupted with a "negative reaction," a flurry of fury, including from Public Citizen; PSR; Friends of the Earth; Environment America; Sierra Club; and Taxpayers for Common Sense. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader calls President Barack Obama’s loan guarantee for nuclear power plants a "monumental mistake." Watch Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on Al Jazeera English interview (play the "In video" report by John Terrett in the lower right hand corner). Watch Kevin debate the Nuclear Energy Institute's top lobbyist, Alex Flint, on C-SPAN's Washington Journal from 7:45-8:30 a.m. on Wed., Feb. 17th. As the top staffer for former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at the time), Alex Flint played a lead role in the writing and passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which established the nuclear loan guarantee program in the first place, as well as awarded another $13 billion in federal subsidies to the nuclear power industry. In fact, as reported by Mike Stuckey of MSNBC, Alex Flint has passed through the revolving door between the nuclear power industry and Capitol Hill more than once, making himself a pretty penny in the process.
]]>
Dow Jones Newswires has reported, according to sources close to the matter, that the Obama administration's U.S. Department of Energy has decided to grant the first federal taxpayer backed nuclear loan guarantee to the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia. Beyond Nuclear immediately issued a media release, denouncing this transfer of financial risk onto U.S. taxpayers, as well as this creation of radiological risk through DOE financing a reactor design which the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission just last October cited as having a major safety flaw. President Obama is putting such a political priority on this first nuclear power loan guarantee, the Associated Press reports, that he will announce it himself sometime next week. A spokeswoman from Southern Nuclear, beneficiary of the taxpayer-backed loan guarantee, responded “We are excited about the support for our project and for nuclear in general.” This is not change we can believe in. Call President Obama at the White House comment line (202-456-1111) to register your disapproval, then call your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative (via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121) to urge them to block President Obama's recent request to triple the nuclear loan guarantee program fund from $18.5 billion to $54.5 billion for financing new reactor construction which otherwise private investors would refuse to touch. Avenging Angels' graphic to the left (used with permission) graced the May 12, 2008 cover of The Nation Magazine, which featured Christian Parenti's excellent article "What Nuclear Renaissance?" As the "Burning Money" graphic indicates, any nuclear power relapse in the U.S. can only be carried out at taxpayers' financial, as well as radiological, risk.]]>
Former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford has recently called the nuclear "renaissance" at taxpayer expense "a first class train wreck." His recent op-ed to the Madison, Wisconsin Capital Times explains some of the reasons why.]]>
The National Journal's "Energy and Environment Expert Blogs" is hosting an online debate about taxpayer-backed nuclear power loan guarantees. Voices opposing such a federal subsidy for new reactors span the political spectrum, from environmental groups to conservative think tanks. Opponents and skeptics of new reactor loan guarantees include: former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford; Ryan Alexander, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense; Janet Larsen, Director of Research, Earth Policy Institute; Henry Sokolski, Executive Director, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center; Ellen Vancko, Nuclear Energy and Climate Change Project manager, Union of Concerned Scientists; David Kreutzer, Senior Policy Analyst in Energy Economics and Climate Change, Heritage Foundation; Bill Snape, Senior Counsel, Center For Biological Diversity; and William O'Keefe, CEO, George C. Marshall Institute.]]>
The Wall Street Journal reports that NRG Energy, based in New Jersey, may pull the plug on its involvement in the South Texas Project nuclear power plant's proposal to build two additional reactors of the General Electric-Hitachi "Advanced Boiling Water Reactor" (ABWR) design at the site which already hosts two operating reactors (pictured at the left). What makes this news all the more remarkable is the fact that the U.S. Department of Energy had previously selected the South Texas Project proposal as one of the top four applications in the entire country for new reactor loan guarantees. As reported by Greg Harman in a three part series entitled "Nukes of Hazard," as well as additional coverage in the San Antonio Current and the San Antonio Express News, the South Texas Project new reactor proposal has been coming apart at the seams for several months now. DOE seems all too ready to risk many billions in taxpayer funding on new reactors resting on financial -- not to mention safety -- foundations built on sand.]]>