Corporate Welfare

[Pyrrho]

Imagine if this was a bill to pay out money to welfare recipients:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/10/politics/main557969.shtml


The Senate endorsed billions of dollars in government help for the nuclear industry Tuesday, despite criticism from some senators that it amounts to a giveaway to a mature industry that should be left to succeed — or fail — on its own.

A group of senators, both Republicans and Democrats, tried to strip a broad energy bill of a provision that would give loan guarantees for construction of six next-generation nuclear power reactors. Their amendment was rejected narrowly 50-48.

Most likely, the "next-generator nuclear power reactor" will be the pebble-bed reactor: http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/talbot0102.asp
http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/2001/october/a6oct01.html

This will directly benefit some of the largest corporations in the United States: Bechtel, Fluor, Raytheon, Halliburton, Washington Group...nuclear power plant construction is expensive from the start -- once you add in change orders and construction delays, the initial price tag will expand quite a bit. Decommissioning the plants after their useful life is over is another very expensive proposition. Then there's the issue of nuclear waste storage.

Do we need nuclear power that badly?

[a_unique_person]

Just look at the sugar lobby.

The money trail goes, Taxes->Govt->Sugar Growers->Party Contributions.

[jj]

Unfortunately, this is a stupid thing in the long run. We must convert to nuclear power as fast as possible, just for sanity's sake, global warming or not, stop throwing most of the energy in the nuclear fuel away and reprocess it repeatedly, and use more and more nuclear reactors.

Also, it may be possible to use them with high heat to make hydrogen to burn instead of natural gas, another thing that we'll have to do in the visible future.

So, it is really annoying that it came out as corporate welfare, which IS bad, but I must also point out that the stupid level of nuclear regulatory laws makes nuclear energy both MORE DANGEROUS and LESS ECONOMIC than it could be.

So, I think the vote is a very mixed blessing at best.

[corplinx]

Are loan guarantees welfare? Nuclear energy is highly government regulated. I think getting a new plant built takes an act of god just to get through red tape currently. It seems loan guarantees might be a good stimulus.

I'm not saying it isn't welfare, but I can see arguements in favor of it.

[Khalid01]

I recall reading about the pebble reactors in Tech Review last year. Were they not moderately successful in South Africa? If they were, they certainly should be built here in America. I find it ridiculous that we have become so afraid of nuclear power because clumsy Communists couldn't handle one, and some moderate incident occured in America; both of these occurances have been overblown and I believe nuclear power to be much more safe presently. I don't know if this funding arrangement was the best solution, but at least the money will be going somewhere. I think all of the speculation is arbitrary.

[corplinx]

Nuclear power luddites annoy me to no end. Especially now that we are coming up ways to recycle waste as more fuel.

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by corplinx
Nuclear power luddites annoy me to no end. Especially now that we are coming up ways to recycle waste as more fuel.

It's the typical problem, no one wants one in their own backyard. Well, I wouldn't. Take that recent Japanese event, when they had those guys performing extremely risky manual procedures with highly toxic levels of radiation. These things just seem to happen.

In Australia, there is only one, small nuclear reactor that is only used for research and medical isotopes. They want to knock down the old one and build a new one. This seems eminently sensible to me, as I wouldn't want an old reactor near me that probably needs to be replaced. However, the nearby residents, who knew the reactor was there when they bought in the area, don't want it replaced.

I can't see the problem with a small, government run reactor that is used to create useful medical isotopes.

However, the thought of having a large one nearby run by the likes of Enron would terrify me.

[corplinx]

Stay at home at all times to keep from getting struck by lightning while you are at it.

It's mostly fear of the unknown, people don't understand nuclear power and how it works. They think undetected radiation will kill them somehow.


I"ll donate m backyard for a plant any day.

[BillyTK]

As long as renewable energy projects receive similar "incentives"; I remember back in the 80's in the UK the govt. carried out a survey comparing the cost of nuclear power with wave-generated power and nuclear power won by a factor of ten; it received all the funding and alternate research was stopped. Turned out years later someone had got the decimal point in the wrong place, and the costs were pretty much equal...