"A Christmas Peril": Obama DOE poised to risk $8.3 billion of taxpayer money on Vogtle 3 & 4 nuclear loan guarantee

Street theater performers, activist supporters, and members of the news media in front of DOE HQ on Dec. 11, 2009 protesting nuclear loan guarantees in solidarity with an International Climate Day of ActionAs the Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactor construction project in Georgia is "almost over the finish line" in negotations with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regarding an $8.3 billion, taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantee, and as DOE has showered the nuclear power industry with another $450 million in taxpayer subsidies in R&D support for so-called "Small Modular Reactors" in just the past year alone, Beyond Nuclear would like to point back to a warning issued four years ago, as relevant now as it was then.

On Dec. 11, 2009, Beyond Nuclear teamed up with Public Citizen and other allies like NIRS and FOE for street theater at DOE HQ in Washington, D.C. entitled "A Christmas Peril." (see photo, left; thanks to Public Citizen for an excellent video record of the fun event, complete with a soundtrack!) The performance, featuring the Ghosts of Nuclear Power's Past, Present, and Future, warned about, and protested against, President Obama's and DOE's impending decision (made just a couple of months later, as it would turn out) to award the $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee for Vogtle 3 & 4.

Contact President Obama and Energy Secretary Moniz, as well as your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative.

Urge they cancel the Vogtle 3 & 4 loan guarantees, and not allow any further nuclear power subsidies. After a half-century of enjoying the lion's share of taxpayer and ratepayer energy subsidies, nuclear power should at long last either stand on its own two feet in the marketplace, or else crawl into the dust bin of history where it belongs.