Addressing the climate crisis with nuclear power would be like using “caviar to fight world hunger"

As reported by Matt Wald of the New York Times, former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford strikes again, with a most apt metaphor bringing a dose of reality to the so-called Third Way/Idaho National Lab conference on nuclear power's future. Unmentioned in the reporting, however, is the irony of U.S. Senators Voinovich (R-OH) and Carper (D-DE) hosting the event. It was on Voinovich's watch that the Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo came within 3/16ths of an inch of a meltdown; Carper's political power base in Wilmington could suffer 100,000 "peak early fatalities," over 70,000 "peak early injuries," 40,000 "peak cancer deaths," and over $300 billion in property damage if any one of the three Salem/Hope Creek atomic reactors suffered a catastrophic radiation release, according to NRC's 1982 CRAC-2 study ("Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences"). Also unreported was the irony that, as Obama administration officials -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu, White House climate and energy czar Carol Browner, NRC chairman Greg Jaczko -- rubbed shoulders with NEI President Marvin Fertel, GE-Hitachi Board Chair Jack Fuller, etc., the nuclear power industry's army of lobbyists worked Capitol Hill to attach a $7 billion nuclear loan guarantee onto the congressional lame duck session Continuing Resolution to fund government operations. NRC's homepage described the gathering as "28 nuclear leaders from government, industry and finance -- focused on long term policy for nuclear energy," but offered no explanation as to why its Chairman would attend an event seemingly largely devoted to nuclear power's promotion -- NRC is not supposed to promote nuclear power, but rather to regulate it in the interests of public health and safety and environmental protection.

They're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Nuclear industry lobbyists sneak $7 billion loan guarantee onto Lame Duck CR -- call your Congress Members right away!

The nuclear power industry won't take no for an answer. It has attempted multiple times this year to add another $9 billion in new reactor loan guarantees to the $18.5 billion it got Congress and George W. Bush to approve on Dec. 23, 2007 -- taking advantage of most Americans being distracted by the holidays. It also got an additional $2 billion at that time in new uranium enrichment loan guarantees. Grassroots resistance was instrumental in blocking the $9 billion nuclear loan guarantee addition attached to inappropriate bills earlier this year, such as the emergency war funding and disaster relief bill in June, as well as the small business support bill after that. This latest sneak move, during a lame duck session of Congress, will be even more difficult to stop -- but stop it we must!

Calls to Congress are urgently needed to block this latest nuclear money grab! Call your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative right away via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Urge them to block any nuclear loan guarantees by having them stripped out from the Continuing Resolution (CR) before Congress. If the nuclear loan guarantees are included in the CR nonetheless, then urge your Congress Members to vote against the entire bill. You can also find your Representative's fax number and email/webform, as well as local district office contact numbers, via the Library of Congress website, to contact them in those multiple ways; the same is true for your two U.S. Senators.

Also contact the White House, and urge President Obama to stop bailing out the filthy rich nuclear power industry. The White House comment line is (202) 456-1111. The White House fax number is (202) 456-2461. And emails can be sent in via the White House webform. Although President Obama has stood by his wise campaign pledge to kill the dangerous Yucca Mountain, Nevada radioactive waste dump proposal, he has largely reneged on other campaign pledges concerning nuclear power. Running for President, Obama said nuclear power's risks and the radioactive waste problem must be solved -- that nuclear power must be made safe and clean -- before any new reactors can be built. And he said such new construction must be done without subsidies. But in the State of the Union Address in 2009, Obama simply declared nuclear power to be safe and clean, and even worse, called for Congress to triple new reactor loan guarantee funding levels from $18.5 billion to $54.5 billion. Obama even went so far as to personally announce the award of the first nuclear loan guarantee, for $8.3 billion, to Southern Co. and its partners, for two new reactors in Georgia. Ironically, Obama's announcement came the very same day that the State of Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 to block the 20 year license extension sought by Vermont Yankee atomic reactor, due to massive radioactivity leakage into groundwater, as well as outright lies, under oath, by Entergy Nuclear officials.

Most ironically -- this latest sneak money grab at the U.S. Treasury was revealed on Pearl Harbor Day, doubly ironic in that this new nuclear loan guarantee would very likely go to the South Texas Project twin reactor proposal. Toshiba of Japan is a partner, Hitachi of Japan is the reactor designer/vendor, and Japanese government agencies are willing to risk billions of dollars in Japanese taxpayer funding on the proposal. The good news is the figure has been lowered from the earlier $9 billion to $7 billion (that's still $7 billion too much!), but the bad news is that House Appropriations Chair Dave Obey (D-WI) could move the bill to the House floor for a vote at any time now. Another $3 billion in loan guarantees for dirty, dangerous, and expensive "fossil energy technologies" is also included in the CR. This is quite objectionable, with the fossil fuel driven climate crisis worsening, and in the aftermath of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe, deadly coal mine explosions, disastrous coal ash spills, oil spills into rivers in Michigan and Illinois, and the risky push for major expansion of natural gas "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) threatening ground and drinking water aquifers.

It's incredible that this $7 billion is even under consideration. $10.2 billion still remains in the nuclear loan guarantee fund, uncommitted. In October, a $7.5 billion nuclear loan guarantee offer by the Obama administration's Dept. of Energy to Constellation Energy for building a giant French Areva "Evolutionary Power Reactor" at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland was turned down. Constellation wanted even more financial risk than that to be transferred onto taxpayers! Constellation not only rejected the offer -- it walked away from its partner Electricite de France, and abandoned the project! Just as Calvert Cliffs 3's price tag was skyrocketing, so too is South Texas Project Units 3 and 4's -- so much so that the City of San Antonio, Texas has lowered its share of ownership by 85% in order to protect its interests.

The ability of nuclear power industry lobbyists to attach the same money grab rider, over and over again, to various pieces of legislation, is shocking, but should not be surprising any longer. After all, Judy Pasternak of American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop, revealed a year ago that from 1999 to 2009, the nuclear industry spent $645 million on federal lobbying, and an additional nearly $65 million on federal campaign contributions. (Pasternak is also the author of the newly released book, Yellow Dirt, about the health and environmental disasters suffered by Navajo miners and their families near uranium mines and mills in the Southwest.) These figures do not include nuclear power industry public relations expenditures -- such as fully funding the Orwellian named front group "Clean and Safe Energy Coalition" headed by Patrick Moore and Christie Todd Whitman. Nor does it include lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions at the state level. The nuclear power industry and its army of lobbyists regards our democracy as the best that money can buy. We need to stop them.

Urge President Obama and your Members of Congress: no nuclear power bailout!

At a press conference held just after the Democratic Party's infamous "shellacking" on Election Day, President Obama indicated that expanding nuclear power may be "common ground" with the new Republican Majority in the U.S. House. President Obama said: "There's been discussion about how we can restart our nuclear industry as a means of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing greenhouse gases.  Is that an area where we can move forward?"

Nevermind that just a few percent, at most, of our electricity comes from burning oil, and nuclear power only provides electricity. And nevermind that nuclear power would be very likely the slowest and most expensive way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And nevermind nuclear power would also be the costliest way to generate jobs.

Thus, it is obvious that during this lame duck session of Congress, it is vital that you contact your U.S. Representative and Senators via the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) to urge them to oppose taxpayer-backed loan guarantees, loans, or other subsidies for new nuclear facilities such as reactors or uranium enrichment plants. It is also vital that you contact President Obama (White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111) to urge the same thing.

As Election Day dust settles, urge Congress: no nuclear loan guarantees!

As the dust settles from November 2nd's federal elections, and the nuclear power industry licks its chops in anticipation of its lobbying army's impending money grab at the U.S. Treasury, now is a vital time to contact your U.S. Representative and Senators via the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) to urge them to oppose taxpayer-backed loan guarantees, loans, or other subsidies for new nuclear facilities such as reactors or uranium enrichment plants. Whether your Representative and Senator(s) are simply waiting to leave office in early January, having announced their retirement or lost their re-election -- or have now been re-elected, and will again hold their seats in Congress early next year -- or are newly elected, and will take the oath of office for the first time in early January -- now is the time to weigh in with them! During the lame duck session of Congress, from now till early January, we must remain vigilant, and we'll have to redouble our efforts come the new Congress as the already filthy rich nuclear power industry seeks to grow its greed even more, at taxpayer expense and risk! Just to give you an idea as to what we'll be up against, see Beyond Nuclear's fact sheet on Representative Fred Upton (Republican from Michigan's 6th district), one of the nuclear power industry's best friends in Congress, who will likely become the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman.

"Honey, I Shrunk the Renaissance: Nuclear Revival, Climate Change, and Reality"

In this Electricity Policy article, former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford writes "The 'nuclear renaissance' has proven to be a promotion that cannot pass economic muster."