Much to the dismay of green energy supporters, President Barack Obama’s new budget plan includes $36 billion in spending to provide loan guarantees for the nuclear power industry to establish new reactors.

 

The $36 billion follows on $18.5 billion set aside by the Bush administration to bolster nuclear power opportunities. Some of the Bush funding ($8.3 billion) was allocated last year by Obama officials to help construct two reactors in Georgia.

 

Between 1999 and 2009, the nuclear power industry spent an estimated $645 million lobbying Congress.

 

Critics of Obama’s nuclear policy point to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office which said the failure rate for reactor loan guarantees can exceed 50%.

 

“We don’t think nuclear loan guarantees are a very good bet,” Robert Cowin, a Washington representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Bloomberg. “The $36 billion the president has proposed is excessive.”

 

Part of Obama’s plan is to develop small “modular” reactors that are less expensive to build than traditional nuclear reactors. The cost of constructing modulars can range from a few hundred million dollars to $2 billion, while building a twin-unit nuclear complex can run as high as $10 billion. But modular reactors can only produce one-twentieth of the power that traditional plants can.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Obama's $36 Billion Nuke-Powered Giveaway (by Harvey Wasserman, Daily Kos)

Obama Would Triple Guarantees for Nuclear Reactors (by Simon Lomax and Jim Snyder, Bloomberg)

Administration to Push for Small ‘Modular’ Reactors (by Matthew Wald, New York Times)

Nuclear Energy Lobby Working Hard to Win Support (by Judy Pasternak, Investigative Reporting Workshop)