Michael Mariotte, Executive Director for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) said today the estimated $140 billion in total for nuclear subsidies in Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act are wrong. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report July 1, 2010 documenting that the legislation could be worth a total of $140 billion to the nuclear industry.
Taxpayers to fund through the Federal Financing bank
The NIRS further reported to its members that the House Appropriations Committee may take up a $36 billion increase in nuclear reactor loans for an increase in the construction of new reactors. This is money the NIRS says “would go to some of the wealthiest companies in the world like Electricite de France, Areva, NRG Energy, Toshiba, General Electric, and the like.”
Mariotte explains, “The funding for nuclear reactors are in the form of loan “guarantees.” These are actually taxpayer loans from the Federal Financing Bank. Few realize that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) program extends beyond simple guarantees. In some cases at least, the loans will come directly from the taxpayers through the little-known Federal Financing Bank (FFB).
Congressional Budget Office predicts 50% default rate on nuclear projects
Mariotte says further, "The taxpayers will be put in the awkward and highly risky position of both providing billions of dollars in loans to giant nuclear corporations and promising to repay the loans if the companies default. ....With the Congressional Budget Office predicting a 50% default rate on nuclear construction projects funded with loan guarantees, the risk of budget-busting losses to taxpayers is enormous."
NRDC Senior Attorney Robert Kennedy Jr. has said nuclear is the most catastrophically expensive way of boiling a pot of water that has ever been devised. He also cities major safety risks.
Environmentalists denounce subsidies granted to nuclear industry early 2010
NIRS, Beyond Nuclear, and many other groups had denounced the decision of the President to support the building of the two reactors in the State of Georgia this past February due to documentation that there are major safety issues. Among other points, these plants would cost 14.5 billion dollars. The $8.3 billion, taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees would finance up to 70% of the total project cost for the new reactors.
Progressive radio host Mike Malloy blasted the President’s action. Malloy broadcasts his nationally syndicated show to San Francisco on weekday evenings AM960 from Georgia where is a resident. He says there is now a surcharge on his electricity bill to pay for the nuclear plants before ground has even been broken.
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