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Obama’s big financial gamble on nuclear power

The government backing of the Georgia project is a major financial gamble, but the White House seems to see it as worth the risk politically………..
The case the administration has made is that they will give Republicans more nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and incentives for coal, if they will accept a cap on carbon emissions and investments in renewable energy.

Obama’s risky nuclear renaissance The Guardian, Kate Sheppard 17 February 2010 Barack Obama’s promise to fund new nuclear power plants is a major financial gamble – and US taxpayers will foot the bill

In his first state of the union address last month, Barack Obama declared that creating new clean energy jobs “means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country”. The following week, his administration proposed tripling the amount of money available for loan guarantees for nuclear power, to $54.5bn. And today, the administration took the next logical step in their plan to kick-start the nuclear revival in the United States, announcing that they will award the first loan to two new reactors in Burke County, Georgia – marking the first expansion of nuclear power in the United States in three decades.

The Obama administration‘s big payouts to the nuclear industry will be essential for expanding nuclear power; the industry has made it clear that there will be no nuclear renaissance unless the US taxpayer foots the bill. The economics of the nuclear industry are so dicey that Wall Street, no strangers to high-risk investments, have for years refused to finance new plants unless the government underwrites the deal. The nuclear industry has made its reliance on the taxpayer clear. “Without loan guarantees we will not build nuclear power plants,” Michael J Wallace, co-chief executive of UniStar Nuclear and vice president of Constellation Energy, told the New York Times in 2007.

A major part of the problem in soliciting investments is the price tag, which just keeps growing……….The government backing of the Georgia project is a major financial gamble, but the White House seems to see it as worth the risk politically………..
The case the administration has made is that they will give Republicans more nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and incentives for coal, if they will accept a cap on carbon emissions and investments in renewable energy.

Obama’s risky nuclear renaissance | Kate Sheppard | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

February 17, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, renewables