Kempner: Time for a nuclear apology from your power company

As reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Note that $8.3 billion of taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees are at risk of being lost, if the Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactor construction project defaults on its loan repayment. This is 15 times the amount of taxpayer money lost in the Solyndra solar loan guarantee default, as Michael Mariotte of NIRS pointed out many years ago.

Critics of the nuclear loan guarantee program warned about such risks in May 2001, when the Cheney Energy Task Force Report first floated the proposal of nuclear loan guarantees; again in 2005 when nuclear loan guarantees were made legal by passage of the Energy Policy Act; and again in 2007, when Congress and George W. Bush approved more than $20 billion worth of new reactor loan guarantees; and again leading up to the 2014 Obama administration approval of the $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee for Vogtle 3 and 4, without requiring any skin in the game by any of the companies involved -- an economic moral hazard with a radioactive twist!

Huge nuclear cost overruns push Toshiba's Westinghouse into bankruptcy

As reported by Reuters.

Note that $8.3 billion of taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees are at risk of being lost, if the Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactor construction project defaults on its loan repayment. This is 15 times the amount of taxpayer money lost in the Solyndra solar loan guarantee default, as Michael Mariotte of NIRS pointed out many years ago.

Critics of the nuclear loan guarantee program warned about such risks in May 2001, when the Cheney Energy Task Force Report first floated the proposal of nuclear loan guarantees; again in 2005 when nuclear loan guarantees were made legal by passage of the Energy Policy Act; and again in 2007, when Congress and George W. Bush approved more than $20 billion worth of new reactor loan guarantees; and again leading up to the 2014 Obama administration approval of the $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee for Vogtle 3 and 4, without requiring any skin in the game by any of the companies involved -- an economic moral hazard with a radioactive twist!

Westinghouse files for bankruptcy, with 4 U.S. nuclear reactors unfinished

As reported by MarketWatch.

Please note that $8.3 billion of taxpayer-back nuclear loan guarantees are at risk of being lost, if the Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactor construction project defaults on its loan repayment. This is 15 times the amount of taxpayer money lost in the Solyndra solar loan guarantee default, as Michael Mariotte of NIRS pointed out many years ago.

Critics of the nuclear loan guarantee program warned about such risks in May 2001, when the Cheney Energy Task Force Report first floated the proposal of nuclear loan guarantees; again in 2005 when nuclear loan guarantees were made legal by passage of the Energy Policy Act; and again in 2007, when Congress and George W. Bush approved more than $20 billion worth of new reactor loan guarantees; and again leading up to the 2014 Obama administration approval of the $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee for Vogtle 3 and 4, without requiring any skin in the game by any of the companies involved -- an economic moral hazard with a radioactive twist!

U.S. taxpayers at risk of losing $8.3 billion if Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactor project defaults on its loan

As reported by Japan Times in an article entitled "Concerns emerge over guarantee for Toshiba's U.S. nuclear project," U.S. taxpayers are at risk of losing $8.3 billion, if the Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactor construction project in Georgia defaults on its loan repayment. That risk has increased significantly in recent months, as Toshiba-Westinghouse, a Japanese firm, teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.

Several years ago, President Barack Obama's Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, awarded the proponents of the Voglte 3 & 4 new reactors -- including Southern Nuclear -- an $8.3 billion federal nuclear loan guarantee, requiring no credit subsidy fee. That is, the companies have zero skin in the game.

The loan guarantee was meant to attract private Wall Street investment firms, but did not. Thus, ironically, the loan itself came from the U.S. Finance Bank, which is federal taxpayer funded. This puts federal taxpayers at even more risk from a Vogtle 3 & 4 loan default.

$8.3 billion is 15 times more taxpayer money at risk, than was lost during the Solyndra solar scandal.

Cost overruns and construction schedule delays have plagued Vogtle 3 & 4's construction from the beginning, several years ago. The problems have contributed significantly to Toshiba-Westinghouse's economic duress, leading Toshiba to exit the new reactor business, and to seek to off-load Westinghouse.