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Environmentalists fight planned nuclear plant

San Antonio Business Journal Feb 23

Environmental groups throughout Texas are lining up to oppose the South Texas Nuclear Operating Co.’s plans to build two additional reactors at its plant near Bay City, Texas.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has filed notice in the Federal Register giving citizens the ability to challenge the proposed reactors. Groups have 60 days to oppose the proposed expansion of the nuclear power plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission must still grant a license to build the new reactors.

Environmental groups planning to formally oppose the project include the newly formed Bay City-based South Texas Association for Responsible Energy (STARE), the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, and Public Citizen………………………..

“New reactors would saddle homeowners and taxpayers with additional debt for infrastructure, more radioactive waste that would sit in our community, and more risk of nuclear accidents, health impacts and radioactive exposure,” contends Susan Dancer, executive director of STARE. “These are among the many reasons we will intervene in opposition to more nuclear reactors.”

“There are cleaner, more affordable ways to generate electricity,” says Cindy Wheeler of the Consumers’ Energy Coalition in San Antonio. “With the economic downturn, we shouldn’t generate power that’s not needed. San Antonio has reduced energy use by 16 percent over the past two years.”

February 24, 2009 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Explosion at Romania nuclear lab

BBC News 23 February 2009A Romanian officer has been killed in a blast at a military laboratory dealing with nuclear, biological and chemical research, Romanian officials say.

The defence ministry says the man, aged 37, died of his injuries after the explosion in Bucharest.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known

February 24, 2009 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Nuclear power: The next bailout

Nuclear power: The next bailout
Central Penn Business Journal By Eric Epstein
2/23/2009 – “……………………

Jim Rubens, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, observed, “My party, the Republican party, is too deep in bed with the coal, oil and electric utility industries to remember its free market principles.”

Turns out politicians from both parties know what’s best after all. Welcome to this century’s version of corporate socialism.

Since Wall Street deferred, Congress and former President Bush approved nuclear loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In December 2007, $18.5 billion was set aside in federal loan guarantees. An additional $2 billion was allocated for new uranium enrichment. And nuclear power companies were guaranteed $2 billion in federal insurance to cover construction delays caused by court challenges or any other distraction outside “normal business risks.”

The Department of Energy actually admitted that $18.5 billion would build just two new reactors. The program is over subscribed with $75 billion in requests.

Is there exposure for Joe Q. Taxpayer?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) considers the risk of default on government nuclear plant loan guarantees “to be very high – well above 50 percent.” In a report issued on May 7, the CBO concluded the risk of default by private companies comes from the expectation that a new nuclear plant “would be uneconomic to operate because of high construction costs, relative to other electricity generation sources.”

February 24, 2009 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Florida trying to undo nuclear plant financing

Florida trying to undo nuclear plant financing  Georgia lawmakers weigh similar bill this week 

AJC February 23, 2009By MARGARET NEWKIRK The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday, February 23, 2009 As Georgia lawmakers push forward with a nuclear financing bill this week, their counterparts in Florida are scrambling to undo a similar measure approved three years ago. In the past two weeks, Florida Republicans, including the state Senate president pro tem, drafted two bills aimed at a 2006 law requiring power customers to pay early for new nuclear reactors………………..

SB 31 would let the utility begin collecting $1.6 billion in project financing charges six years earlier, when construction begins.

The charges include about $600,000 in debt interest and $1 billion in “return on equity” — roughly, profit — for Georgia Power shareholders.

February 24, 2009 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment