Financial battle over the future of the nuclear power industry

As elderly nukes stumble toward oblivion, various funds allegedly set aside for decommissioning may be significantly under-funded, deeply exacerbating the financial battles that now the industry.

The Legacy of Three Mile Island: It Could Happen Again At Any Time HARVEY WASSERMAN FOR BUZZFLASH 27 March 2010,“……1) Four northeastern nukes—in Vermont, New Jersey and the two at Indian Point— are under intense public pressure to shut within the next two years. Numerous other elderly reactors are likely to go down long before any new nukes could come on line.

2) French President Sarkozy is demanding that world financial institutions buy a bevy of new French-built reactors. But huge delays and cost-overruns at French projects in Finland and France itself have made the investment community wary to say the least, thus prompting his foot-stomping.

3) Documents leaked from inside France’s national utility EDF indicate cost-cutting has made the new French reactor design exceedingly prone to explosion, further unsettling potential investors.

4) The future of new US reactor construction hinges on massive loan guarantees and handouts. The public number is $54 billion, but the Nuclear Information & Resource Service says the real bill could top a trillion (http://nukefree.org/node/1844 ).

5) In the polarized, cost-conscious wake of the health care bill, and the apparent demise of cap and trade as a centerpiece of climate legislation ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/science/earth/26climate.html?src=me ), the idea of such huge sums flowing to a deeply polarizing energy source has become increasingly problematic. Without a clear trade-off for fossil/nuclear giveaways, and with stiffening resistance from the rightist National Taxpayers Union, Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation, the nuke bonanza is anything but certain.

6)    An attempt by Entergy to shift six reactors into an asset-free corporate shell has been nixed by New York authorities, leaving liability for Vermont Yankee, Indian Point and other northeastern nukes in limbo (http://nukefree.org/node/1855 )

7)     As elderly nukes stumble toward oblivion, various funds allegedly set aside for decommissioning may be significantly under-funded, deeply exacerbating the financial battles that now the industry.

8)     As a lame duck, George W. Bush signed agreements apparently obligating the feds to assume responsibility for enough radioactive waste to fill two of the cancelled Yuccas.  (http://salem-news.com/articles/march242010/nuke-costs.php ) The complete lack of even one such facility means the potential taxpayer bill is beyond meaningful calculation.

9)    Above all the exemption from liability for a major accident fed the industry by federal law in the case of terror or error remains the largest potential cost to us all.  Renewed in 2005, some believe the statute is clearly unconstitutional.

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