Nuclear Pork — Enough is Enough

[RedEarth]

Once your power source has reached, say 10% of the electricity grid, let alone 20%, it should be time to cut the cord to government funding.

Yet after more than $70 billion dollars in direct subsidies, billions more in insurance subsidies, plus another $13 billion available through the energy policy act of 2005 — Sen. McCain and others still feel that climate legislation must not merely create a price for carbon dioxide that would advantage all carbon free sources of energy, but that we must also throw billions of dollars of more pork at the industry. At some point, infatuation has turned to obsession (see “McCain calls for 700+ new nuclear plants (and seven Yucca mountains) costing $4 trillion).

I am not against building new nuclear power plants, far from it (see “Is 450 ppm (or less) politically possible? Part 2: The Solution.”) But when is enough enough in terms of massive taxpayer support for a mature industry? We had such an incredible clamor for welfare reform in the 1990s, to change “government’s social welfare policy with aims at reducing recipient dependence on the government.” If we reduced the poor’s dependence on government, why not the super-duper rich?

TOTAL SUBSIDIES TO NUCLEAR APPROACHING $100 BILLION


Let’s start with a historical subsidies. This 1999 Congressional research service report lists the subsidies for all major sources of energy from 1948 through 1998. This October 2007 Government Accountability Office report, “Federal Electricity Subsidies,” examined federal electricity-related subsidies from 2002 to 2007.

Bottom line: From 1948 to today, nuclear energy R&D exceeded $70 billion, whereas R&D for renewables was about $10 billion.

But that’s not all. The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act which caps the liability for claims arising from nuclear incidents. It reduces the insurance nukes need to buy and puts taxpayers on the hook to cover all claims in excess of the cap. The benefit of this indirect subsidy has been estimated at between $237 million and $3.5 billion a year — suggesting it has been worth many billions of dollars to the industry. Indeed, it could be argued that the value is considerably larger than that, since the industry might not have existed at all without it:


http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/09/nuclear-subsidies-enough-is-enough/

[whistle]

1. Aren't the subsidies for 4th generational nuclear power, the high efficiency

...lowered nuclear waste type of thorium gas reactors? I think that is well worth the investment to allow the country to go nuclear with safe power plants and an industry that can change our whole economy.

[madokie]

2. kick for exposure

rec

[Overseas]

3. Has this much govt support been provided to solar ? /nt jq