nuclear-news

Tax-payers liable if nuclear reactor plan goes belly up

It’s Official – Taxpayers Take On Nuclear Risk, CleanEnergy Footprints, 18 June 2010, Today the utility giant Southern Company agreed to the terms of its portion of the $8.3 billion conditional loan guarantee awarded by the Obama Administration back in February for the proposed two new reactors it wants to build along with its utility partners at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. So now U.S. taxpayers are officially on the hook if the project goes belly up.

Which given the nuclear industry’s past track record, is a likely scenario. Many of the problems with these nuclear loan guarantees are in the aptly titled report, All Risk, No Reward for Taxpayers and Ratepayers.And does the taxpayer have access to the terms of this expensive agreement? No way. The AJC reports that Southern Company negotiated a “range.” Unlike what Americans are dealing with when they go to the bank to buy a house and are told they need to put 20% down to secure the loan, the government has kept it a secret as to what utilities pursuing new reactors will have to “put down” to secure the loan. This secrecy in spite of the fact that taxpayers will foot the bill if the project defaults….

…..We believe the nuclear loan guarantee program is a raw deal for taxpayers and a heyday for nuclear proponents. Nuclear socialism triumphs again — what a “renaissance” this is turning out to be.CleanEnergy Footprints » Archive » It’s Official – Taxpayers Take On Nuclear Risk

June 19, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, energy efficiency, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, reactors, uranium