Earth Equity News

Nuclear Loan Guarantees Fail on All Counts. Commentary by Amy Goodman, truthdig.com, February 16, 2010. "On its most basic level, the economics of nuclear power generation simply doesn't make sense. The cost to construct these behemoths is so huge, and the risks are so great, that no sensible investor, no banks, no hedge funds will invest in their construction. No one will loan a power company the money to build a power plant, and the power companies refuse to spend their own money… Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a longtime critic of the nuclear power industry, told me, 'If you buy more nuclear plants, you're going to get about two to 10 times less climate solution per dollar, and you'll get it about 20 to 40 times slower, than if you buy instead the cheaper, faster stuff that is walloping nuclear and coal and gas.' In his 2008 report The Nuclear Illusion, Lovins writes, 'Nuclear power is continuing its decades-long collapse in the global marketplace because it's grossly uncompetitive, unneeded, and obsolete-so hopelessly uneconomic that one needn't debate whether it's clean and safe; it weakens electric reliability and national security; and it worsens climate change compared with devoting the same money and time to more effective options'… The White House Office of Management and Budget, in the same statement announcing the $54.5 billion for nuclear power, also listed a 'credit subsidy funding of $500 million to support $3 [billion] to $5 billion of loan guarantees for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.' Thus, just one-tenth the amount for nuclear is being dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies…The waste from nuclear power plants is not only an ecological nightmare, but also increases the threats of nuclear proliferation… From economics, to the environment, to the prevention of nuclear threats, Obama's nuclear loan guarantees fail on all counts." Amy Goodman is the co-founder, executive producer and host of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on more than 450 public broadcast stations in North America.