nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Nuclear loan guarantees not a good deal for tax-payers

U.S. Government Will Back Loans For Nuclear Power by MARILYN GEEWAX, NPR

February 19, 2014 Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced a multibillion-dollar loan guarantee Wednesday for building nuclear reactors in Georgia, underscoring the White House’s plan for an “all of the above” energy strategy.
The two reactors will be the first built in this country in nearly three decades…….Moniz said he would finalize the loans on Thursday during a trip to Georgia.

The announcement brought quick criticism from some environmentalists. In a statement, Katherine Fuchs of Friends of the Earth pointed to a nuclear disaster in Japan. “Fewer than three years have passed since the tragedy at Fukushima demonstrated that nuclear reactors can never be safe. Yet the president and energy secretary are ignoring its lessons,” Fuchs said……

This particular effort to help nuclear energy has been pending since February 2010 when the White House gave conditional approval for loan guarantees for a nuclear power project in Waynesboro, Ga.
When the deal is finalized Thursday, Georgia Power and Oglethorpe Power will receive a combined $6.5 billion in loan guarantees to finish building the Vogtle nuclear plant expansion. A third Vogtle partner, Municipal Electric Association of Georgia, has yet to complete the steps for a proposed $1.8 billion guarantee………

Closing the deals on Thursday will mark “a major milestone in the administration’s commitment to jump-start the U.S. nuclear power industry,” Moniz said.

But Fuchs said the loan guarantees are not a good deal for taxpayers because “nuclear reactors are too risky to finance, too slow to build and too dangerous to be part of a meaningful energy solution.”…….http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/19/279630881/u-s-government-will-back-loans-for-nuclear-power

February 21, 2014 - Posted by | Uncategorized

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

« Previous | Next »