The likes of French nuclear giant AREVA and its supporters are trying to push the nuclear ‘renaissance’ onto the agenda at the Copenhagen climate change conference, like some kind of radioactive Trojan Horse. Meanwhile, the reality on the ground for this so-called resurgence of nuclear power continues to be utterly dismal.
The latest casualties – following the cancellation of new nuclear projects in Turkey, Canada, Bulgaria, South Africa, Texas, Missouri, Idaho and Alabama – are at Nine Mile Point in upstate New York and the South Texas Project nuclear power plant.
After announcing last year its plans to build an AREVA-designed EPR reactor at Nine Mile Point, UniStar Nuclear Energy has now asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ‘temporarily suspend’ the review of Unistar’s application to build the reactor. Why? ‘Because of uncertainties over the availability of federal loan guarantee money for new nuclear power plants’. In other words Unistar can’t or won’t build a new reactor without US taxpayers providing a financial safety net.
Meanwhile, over at the South Texas Project nuclear power plant, the cost of building two new nuclear reactors has spiralled from $10 billion to $14 billion. This has led to CPS Energy, the company supposedly building the reactors, to make legal enquires to see what costs would be involved should it or its partner Toshiba withdraw from the project. This follows ‘a postponed a bond issue, a warning on cost escalation, an internal investigation and the departure of its general manager’. That’s one troubled project.
Once again we’re seeing how the economics of nuclear power work against it – rocketing costs and the need for government bailouts. No amount of pro-nuclear propaganda is going to change that any time soon.
– from greenpeace.org