[NYTr] Nuew Nukes for Texas? Back to Failed Energy Policy of '70s

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Public Citizen - Sep 25, 2007
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2516

Application for New Nuclear Reactors in South Texas 
Sends U.S. Back to Failed Energy Policies of the 1970s

Statement of Tyson Slocum, 
Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program

NRG Energy’s request today to build two new nuclear reactors in
southern Texas is déjà vu all over again. The U.S. has been down the
nuclear power path – and it has proven to be expensive, polluting,
dangerous and a security risk. Nothing has changed with any of these
factors since utilities lost interest in nuclear power 30 years ago.
Electricity companies are testing a revised licensing process only
because federal politicians want to throw even more taxpayer dollars at
an industry with which they have become far too cozy.

With this application, NRG Energy is attempting to be the first in line
to obtain loan guarantees and other construction subsidies for nuclear
power granted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. NRG Energy is not a
poor little start-up company venturing into an innovative field to
address energy needs. In the past 18 months, NRG Energy has made $835
million in profit and is positioning itself to receive federal handouts
that continue to prop up a mature industry that is not economically
viable.

Nuclear industry heads have candidly stated that without the federal
loan guarantees, the projects will come to a halt. There is no reason
for U.S. taxpayers to back loans for a technology that, according to
the Congressional Budget Office, has a default rate of “well above 50
percent.” NRG Energy’s proposed design for an advanced boiling water
reactor should not even be eligible for loan guarantees, the purpose of
which is to encourage advancement of new and innovative technology,
because advanced boiling water reactors are operating in Japan, and
several more are under construction in Asia. The technology isn’t that
new, and it isn’t that innovative. Further, NRG is hardly deserving of
taxpayer money; it paid $2 million in fines this year for falsely
reporting natural gas trading information.

The proposed reactors may be headed for billions in cost overruns just
as in the 1970s, especially given that the cost of steel and other
construction materials are skyrocketing. Two advanced boiling water
reactors were built in Japan in 1996 and 1997 at a cost of $4.21
billion and more than $3.64 billion respectively.

Public Citizen will fight these proposed reactors every step of the
way. The flaws of nuclear power – excessive cost, security threats and
long-lived radioactive waste – have not been solved. More nuclear
reactors will only exacerbate these problems. The future of nuclear
power looks a lot like the past. The first step to avoid repeating
history is to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on bailing out this 20th
century technology and focus on 21st century solutions that are clean,
safe, and sustainable.