Reactor Reax Top Stories - Salem-News.Com

(WASHINGTON DC) - This week in Reactor Reax: the DoE's loan guarantee programs are the focus of much public attention since Solyndra went bankrupt last year. Christian Science Monitor explores Nuclear waste, asking why environmentalists are pressing NRC on reactor licenses. Also, feds say design flaw led to Calif. nuke plant woes.

Assessing the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program, Mercatus Center, June 19, 2012. "The Department of Energy's loan guarantee programs have been the focus of much public attention since energy company Solyndra went bankrupt last year, leaving taxpayers with a $538 million bill. Of equal concern to the significance of this waste, however, is the distortion and incentives experienced by both lenders and companies that participate in the government loan program, as well as the distortion of market signals. Further looking at where the money is going, the evidence seems to go solidly against the idea that they are achieving their goals. And the systematic economic harm done by rewarding companies that forgo value creation in favor of pursuing financial benefit through the political system creates long term consequences for our economy and our country."

Nuclear waste: why environmentalists are pressing NRC on reactor licenses, The Christian Science Monitor, June 20, 2012. "The nation's top nuclear power plant regulator is being petitioned by environmental groups to halt all further license extensions for 35 power reactors nationwide until their on-site nuclear-waste storage systems undergo more in-depth environmental evaluation. The legal petition filed Monday followed a June 8 ruling by the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which found that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had failed to adequately evaluate on-site nuclear waste storage prior to granting license extensions."

Feds say design flaw led to Calif. nuke plant woes, Associated Press, June 19, 2012. "A botched computer analysis resulted in design flaws that are largely to blame for unprecedented wear in steam tubes at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, but it isn't clear how the problems can be fixed, federal regulators said. The preliminary findings by a team of Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigators were disclosed Monday night nearly five months after the seaside plant was shut down following a break in a tube that carries radioactive water. There is no date to restart either of its two reactors.

Shut down the Northwest's only nuclear power plant, (op-ed), The Oregonian, June 17, 2012. John Howieson: "The Fukushima nuclear power accidents, resulting from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, have brought home to people around the world the perilous nature of nuclear energy. If a country as advanced as Japan cannot adequately regulate its nuclear industry to run its reactors safely, then we cannot assume anyone else is capable of it." John Howieson, who lives in Southwest Portland, is a retired radiologist and an advisory board member of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.

"Reactor Reax" is featured on www.NuclearBailout.org, a Web site maintained by Physicians for Social Responsibility