Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Jobs Act would sneak in a bonus for nuclear

Unfortunately, one of the most important environmental measures ever to come before our state Legislature – the Clean Energy Jobs Act, or Assembly Bill 649 – contains a provision that would weaken our nuclear safeguards. The provision would completely remove the requirement for a nuclear waste repository.

Diane Farsetta: Remove nuclear provisions from Clean Energy Jobs Act LaCrosse Tribune By Diane Farsetta / Madison January 11, 2010

“…… why include provisions on nuclear reactors in the state’s Clean Energy Jobs Act, recently introduced in the state legislature? Nuclear reactors generate high-level radioactive waste, which is “one of the nation’s most hazardous substances,” according to the U.S. Govern-ment Accountability Office.

In a November 2009 report, the respected nonpartisan agency found there were no good options for dealing with the radioactive waste. And, as the federal government continues its decades-long struggle to find a solution to this grave public safety, environmental and political problem, the costs to taxpayers and ratepayers will skyrocket. In the meantime, radioactive waste is piling up at 80 sites in 35 states, including three sites in Wisconsin. Many sites are active nuclear reactors, where the mounting waste problem has forced plant operators to rearrange “the racks holding spent fuel in (cooling) pools … to allow for more dense storage,” according to the GAO report. “Even with this re-racking, spent nuclear fuel pools are reaching their capacities.”……………

Unfortunately, one of the most important environmental measures ever to come before our state Legislature – the Clean Energy Jobs Act, or Assembly Bill 649 – contains a provision that would weaken our nuclear safeguards. The provision would completely remove the requirement for a nuclear waste repository. Instead, it would allow new nuclear reactors to be built in the state if the plan to deal with the radioactive waste is deemed “economic, reasonable, stringent and in the public interest.”

While that language may sound strong, it’s how the nuclear industry describes its practice of keeping the radioactive waste at reactor sites indefinitely – the same non-solution that the GAO warned about………..

Why does the Clean Energy Jobs Act include problematic nuclear provisions, among its many commendable measures to address global warming and strengthen Wisconsin’s economy by increasing energy efficiency and supporting renewable energy projects?

Simply put, it’s spin- and lobbying-driven politics. For years, the nuclear industry has lobbied the federal government furiously – and often, successfully – for more subsidies and fewer regulations, claiming to be the answer to global warming. For the past year, these same lobbyists have been active in Madison, and some state legislators have bought their arguments. As a result, pro-nuclear provisions were included in the Clean Energy Jobs Act, in a bid to increase support for a complex bill sure to be contentious.

Diane Farsetta: Remove nuclear provisions from Clean Energy Jobs Act