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Is Obama administration blind to the financial risks of nuclear power?

Obama’s Nuclear Blind Spot , Mother Jones , By Kate Sheppard 9 March 2010 Is the administration ignoring the potential financial fallout of its plans for a nuclear expansion?The Obama administration has embarked on a high-stakes gamble: devoting billions of dollars to an expansion of nuclear power in the hope of winning Republican votes for a climate bill. But in its eagerness to drum up bipartisan support for one of the hardest sells on Obama’s policy agenda, is the administration turning a blind eye to the financial risk?

Obama’s 2009 budget provides $54.4 billion in government-backed loans for new reactors—a long-cherished goal of nuclear advocates and their (mostly Republican) allies in Congress. Environmental and taxpayer protection groups oppose this plan—often citing a damning 2003 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that assessed a similar proposed program and predicted that the loans would have a default rate of “well above 50 percent….The Obama administration won’t disclose the risk involved with any of the proposed reactors it’s considering for loan guarantees. Credit subsidy rates are confidential business issues, says Jonathan Silver, head of the DOE’s loan guarantee program….
The administration also dismisses concerns about the rising price estimates for nuclear reactors. “I don’t think there’s that much uncertainty about what it’s going to cost to build,” says the senior administration official. Yet the red flags surrounding nuclear construction are numerous.

No one has broken ground on a new reactor in the US for thirty years, because costs for the first generation of nuclear plants spiraled out of control. The industry claims it has fixed the problems that led to those massive cost blowouts. Areva, the French nuclear giant, is building what it calls the flagship of a new generation of reactors in Finland. That project hit a wall last year after the anticipated price tag leapt by more 50 percent. Areva now refuses to even give an estimate of when the plant will be completed.

In the US, several proposed plants have run into trouble before they’ve even made it off the drawing board. ……Meanwhile, the first recipient of a DOE-backed loan, the Vogtle project in Georgia, hasn’t even been able to obtain a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission due to safety shortcomings with its shield design. A spokesman for Georgia Power says it doesn’t expect final approval until the end of 2011.

Obama’s Nuclear Blind Spot | Mother Jones

March 9, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactor, reactors