Reactor Reax Top Stories - The Nukes of Hazard: Nuclear Power Remains Too Costly

The latest stories about nuclear power and danger.

Courtesy: cosmosmagazine.com

(WASHINGTON DC) - In this week's roundup of nuclear-related stories and developments from around the globe, we learn that senators are calling for an end to the US nuclear industry welfare program. Authors of a new report call proposed nuclear plants 'the poster child' of failing, expensive power projects.

Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden says the Fukushima nuclear disaster is far worse than reported, and in Southern California, the San Onofre nuclear power plant leads the nation in safety complaints.

Stop the nuclear industry welfare programme, (op-ed), The Guardian (UK), April 13, 2012. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Ryan Alexander: "The US is facing a $15 trillion national debt, and there is no shortage of opinions about how to move toward deficit reduction in the federal budget. One topic you will not hear discussed very often on Capitol Hill is the idea of ending one of the oldest American welfare programmes – the extraordinary amount of corporate welfare going to the nuclear energy industry." Bernie Sanders is a U.S. Senator from Vermont and Ryan Alexander is the president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Progress Energy's proposed nuclear plant called 'poster child' for failure, Tampa Bay Times, April 20, 2012. "Authors of a new report on the future of U.S. electricity generation highlight Progress Energy's Levy County nuclear plant as 'the poster child' of failing, expensive power projects. In a conference call Thursday to discuss the 60-page report, the authors called the Levy facility's $22 billion price tag 'unprecedented' for a nuclear plant, and the $1 billion Progress customers are paying for a plant that might never get built a 'sad experience' in power plant financing."

Obama's Atomic Solyndra?, (op-ed), Huffington Post, April 18, 2012. Harvey Wasserman: "It's about a proposed $8.33 billion nuke power loan guarantee package for two reactors being built at Georgia's Vogtle. Obama anointed it last year for the Southern Company, parent to Georgia Power. Two other reactors sporadically operate there. Southern just ravaged the new construction side of the site, stripping virtually all vegetation. It's also stripped Georgia ratepayers of ever-more millions of dollars, soon to become billions. This project is in the Peach State for its law forcing the public to pay for reactor construction in advance. When the project fails, or the reactors melt, the public still must pay. A taste of what's coming has emerged in shocking defects in poured concrete at the site, which will cost millions to correct and cause months of delay on a project whose construction has barely begun." Harvey Wasserman is author or co-author of a dozen books and edits the www.nukefree.org website.

Wyden: Fukushima Status Worse Than Reported, KTVZ (Bend, OR), April 16, 2012. "After an onsite tour of what remains of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facilities decimated by last year's earthquake and subsequent tsunami, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Monday he's sent a letter to Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki, looking for ways to advance and support clean-up and recovery efforts. Wyden's principal concern is the relocation of spent fuel rods currently being stored in unsound structures immediately adjacent to the ocean. He strongly urged the ambassador to accept international help to prevent dangerous nuclear material from being released into the environment."

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Leads Nation in Safety Complaints, Los Alamitos-Seal Beach Patch (CA), April 19, 2012. "The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station continues to rank No. 1 in the nation for both substantiated and unsubstantiated safety complaints at nuclear plants, according to new figures from federal regulators. The number of substantiated safety allegations at San Onofre was more than six times the national average in 2011, a significant drop from its peak in 2010 when it was 15 times the average. But even with the decline, San Onofre was -- for the third year in a row -- the national leader in safety allegations substantiated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

"Reactor Reax" is featured on www.NuclearBailout.org, a Web site maintained by Physicians for Social Responsibility. For more information, contact reactorreax@nuclearbailout.org.