US Capitol Police.govHow do you define zero? Merriam-Webster defines “zero” as “the arithmetical symbol denoting the absence of all magnitude; the absence of a measurable quantity; not any.” Like “zero calories” meaning “calorie free.” Right?
That should be the first warning in Senate Bill 2291's title “Zero-Emission Nuclear Power Production Credit Act of 2021” for “carbon-free” electricity from atomic power stations. Nuclear power isn't carbon-free nor should its significant radioactive emissions from uranium mining, fuel fabrication, reactor operation, nuclear waste stream and recurring radiological accidents be discounted.
But that’s just the beginning for economist and consumer advocate Mark Cooper who exposes the gross deliberate misrepresentations of the five Senate authors in their plan to dole out $50 billion in federal taxpayer money to aging, uneconomical nuclear power stations over the next decade. The new report explains how nuclear subsidies actually undermine President Biden’s infrastructure and climate goals by diverting resources from wind and solar climate solutions.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and Friends of the Earth (FOE) released the Mark Cooper report "Building a Least-Cost, Low-Carbon Electricity System with Efficiency, Wind, Solar, & Intelligent Grid Management: Why Nuclear Subsidies are an Unnecessary Threat to the Transformation" by Mark Cooper, Senior Fellow for Economic Analysis, Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School on July 15, 2021.
Also see the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Friends of the Earth joint press statement, July 15, 2021
A streaming video replay of the news event will be available at https://foe.org/news as of 5 p.m. EDT on July 15, 2021.