Nader cites "supine" government and regulators for taxpayers' nuclear burden

Writing this week in The Ecologist, Ralph Nader points out that "nuclear power exists for one reason only -- government support.

Read the full article.

Here is an excerpt:

"So if you go to work at the NEI and you read about the absence of any permanent radioactive waste storage site, no problem, the government / taxpayers are responsible for transporting and safeguarding that lethal garbage for centuries.

Passing the bill onto consumers

If your reactors experience ever larger cost over-runs and delays, as is now happening with two new reactors in South Carolina, no problem, the supine state regulatory commissions will just pass the bill on to consumers, despite the fact that consumers receive no electricity from these unfinished plants.

If these plants, and two others in Georgia under construction, experience financial squeezes from Wall Street, no problem, a supine Congress has already passed ample taxpayer loan guarantees that make Uncle Sam (you the taxpayer) bear the cost of the risk.

If there were to be an accident such as the one that happened in Fukushima, Japan, no problem, under the Price-Anderson Act, the government / taxpayers bear the cost of the vast amount of damage from any nuclear power plant meltdown."