nuclear-news

Nuclear industry survives only with corporate welfare

The report finds that taxpayers have subsidized the nuclear fuel cycle through every stage from mining to long-term storage of radioactive waste. It identified a total of 30 different subsidies that when combined have repeatedly exceeded the average market price of any power produced.

Scientists: Nuclear power isn’t viable without corporate welfare, SmartPlanet,  By David Worthington | Feb 23, 2011 Nuclear power was supposed to be too cheap to meter, but a science-based nonprofit that advocates for environmental and public health issues has published a new report that casts doubt that it was ever really economically viable.

Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which views nuclear power subsidies as a risky investment, published its latest report on nuclear power, “Nuclear Power: Still Not Viable Without Subsidies,” today.

The UCS said in a press release that the U.S. nuclear power industry has been “propped up” for over 50 years by a “generous array of government subsidies that have supported its development and operations.”

The report finds that taxpayers have subsidized the nuclear fuel cycle through every stage from mining to long-term storage of radioactive waste. It identified a total of 30 different subsidies that when combined have repeatedly exceeded the average market price of any power produced.

It estimates that energy subsidies introduced by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 can be worth up to 200 percent of the projected price of electricity when plants are built. Past subsidies have exceeded 7 cents per kilowatt-hour (¢/kWh), according to the report.

UCS explained that the subsidies are not cash payouts; instead they were devised to shift the risk of building and operating nuclear power plants from the plant owners onto ratepayers and taxpayers.

Notably, taxpayers will be on the hook for the cost of any nuclear accident via a 1950’s era law called the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act and other mechanisms, according to the report.

“These hidden subsidies distort market choices that would otherwise favor less risky investments,” UCS said…….UCS is cautioning that taxpayers will be footing the bill if the nuclear industry ever defaults on its loans. The total amount of loan guarantees paid by the federal government will be $58.5 billion if Congress consents to the President’s proposal.

Scientists: Nuclear power isn’t viable without corporate welfare – SmartPlanet

February 25, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA