Obama calls nuclear power “clean energy” in State of the Union

Orwell is spinning so fast in his grave, he’d qualify for electricity production tax credits: Congressman Markey (D-MA) made that joke at a Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear summit several years ago. That event was focused on countering the “Nuclear Power Renaissance” -- more aptly dubbed the nuclear power relapse -- and especially the threat of federal loan guarantees to pay for it, since private investors have refused to for several decades running. But Markey’s joke could also apply to President Obama’s decision – despite 45 groups, including Beyond Nuclear, urging him not to – to declare nuclear power “clean energy” in his State of the Union address to Congress last night, and his call for its expansion at taxpayer risk and expense despite 2007-2008 presidential campaign pledges against such subsidies. The White House fact sheet on the "Clean Energy Standard" accompanying the State of the Union address makes perfectly clear that President Obama is lumping nuclear power -- and other dirty energy such as coal -- in with renewable sources such as solar and wind, as well as efficiency, when he says "clean energy." 

Obama equated nuclear power to being as “clean” as renewables like wind and solar, despite the “routine” and “accidental” radioactive and toxic releases (as well as greenhouse gas emissions) at each and every step of the uranium fuel chain, from mining to milling, processing, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, reactor operations, decommissioning, and radioactive waste storage and disposal. Obama said “clean energy,” including nuclear power, represents “investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.” To the contrary, more nuclear power facilities would: create yet more “dirty bombs in our backyard” vulnerable to terrorist attack; worsen nuclear weapons proliferation risks; be the most expensive, and slowest, way of all to address the accelerating climate crisis, and the least cost-effective way to put Americans back to work.

Ironically, Obama’s “handing out money” from hardworking American taxpayers to the filthy rich nuclear power industry, in the form of current and impending U.S. taxpayer-backed loan guarantee offers, would benefit foreign firms and governments: $8.3 billion to build two new Toshiba-Westinghouse (a Japanese firm) AP1000 reactors at Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia; $2 billion to build the Areva (French government owned) “Eagle Rock [Uranium] Enrichment Facility” in Idaho; $7.5 billion to build an Areva “Evolutionary Power Reactor” at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland, a project currently 100% owned by the French government’s Electricite de France; and yet-to-be-announced billions for two new Japanese-designed Hitachi-GE “Advanced Boiling Water Reactors” at South Texas Project nuclear power plant, a venture co-owned by Japan's Toshiba and nuclear utility Tokyo Electric Power Company.

Obama urged that “instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s,” without mentioning that nuclear power is now 54 years old, and has gobbled up the lion’s share of federal subsidies for energy research and development that entire time, as well as numerous other forms of taxpayer and ratepayer subsidy (not to mention shareholder loss!). Despite all this disproportionate public support, nuclear power currently provides only 11% of our country’s primary energy -- tied with renewables, which have received so much less support over the past half century. Despite this, Obama called for expanding taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power R&D, explicitly praising such projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Numerous anti-nuclear groups responded immediately to Obama’s “Nukespeak,” including Friends of the Earth, Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS), Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), and the Sierra Club of Connecticut’s Anti-Nuclear Committee.

Please help educate President Obama that nuclear power is actually dirty, dangerous, and expensive, and urge him to support and promote truly clean energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar, as well as the most cost-effective of all, efficiency (not even mentioned in the State of the Union!). Phone the White House comment line at (202) 456-1111; write President Obama via the White House webform at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact; snail mail him at The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500; or fax him at (202) 456-2461. You can also write him a personal note on Beyond Nuclear’s solar or wind post card, as you can your Members of Congress, State Governor, State Legislators, and other decision makers. To order postcards, email info@beyondnuclear.org or call (301) 270-2209.