Florida "ratepayers have subsidized Duke & FPL almost $2B for nuclear power plants that will never be built"

As reported by Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano, in a column entitled "Did I mention that Amendment 1 is a no-good, dirty scam?". Thanks to Scott Stapf of the Hastings Group for Tweeting it out.

NIRS: NATIONAL BAILOUT OF U.S. NUCLEAR REACTORS BASED ON NEW YORK APPROACH WOULD COST $280 BILLION BY 2030

Not A Viable Climate Strategy: With More Than Half of US Reactors Expected to Be Uneconomical by 2020, $160 Billion Would Still Be Required for “Narrower” Subsidy Program; Huge Infusion of Support Would Crowd Out Renewables.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///November 3, 2016///Nuclear power started out in the United States with the promise it would be “too cheap to meter,” but may end up being “too big to bail out.”  A new report by the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) finds that a national bailout of nuclear energy patterned on the model advanced this year in New York State would cost ratepayers and taxpayers more than $280 billion by 2030.  Based on an independent analysis that over half of existing nuclear power in the U.S. will be unprofitable by 2020, a narrower bailout would still cost the U.S. $160 billion by 2030.  In addition to enormous expense, NIRS found that one major side-effect of bailing out nuclear power on a large-scale basis would be the starving of renewable energy of needed capital.

Available online at http://bit.ly/too-big-to-bail-out-nuclear, the “Too Big to Bail Out: The Economic Costs of a National Nuclear Power Subsidy” report notes that since 2014 nuclear power companies have lobbied aggressively for new subsidies to benefit existing nuclear power stations in the U.S. So far, such proposals have only been adopted in one state (New York), and legal and regulatory challenges have resulted today in only one nuclear reactor receiving temporary financial support to date: the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in New York. A long-term, statewide subsidy policy recently adopted in New York, to be implemented beginning in April 2017, is now being touted as a model for other states and for national implementation. The total cost of the 12-year subsidy New York is offering to four reactors is substantial: an estimated $7.6 billion -- more than three times as much as the subsidies for new renewable energy sources ($2.44 billion by 2030) under the state’s new standard. More.

Beyond Nuclear appeals to federal courts in opposition to Fermi 3 proposed new reactor

Artist's rendition of Fermi 3 (depicted in blue), to be built right on top of the exact spot where Fermi 1 suffered a partial meltdown on Oct. 5, 1966.Terry Lodge, a Toledo-based attorney who serves as legal counsel for an environmental coalition including Beyond Nuclear, on Oct. 28th filed a legal appeal against Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor targeted at the Great Lakes shore in southeast MI (see photo, left). The coalition has resisted Fermi 3 since 2008. The appeal focuses on quality assurance violations (Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, Inc. serves as the coalition's expert witness), as well as Nuclear Regulatory Commission violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, by excluding the proposed new transmission line corridor from its Environmental Impact Statement. Re: the latter, this is the first ever legal challenge against a highly controversial 2007 NRC regulatory rollback involving the Orwellian change in the definition of a single word -- construction -- in the agency's regulations. More

Take action! Keep Japan's nukes out of India!

PETITION DEADLINE: November 6, 2016

 

Japan intends to to export nuclear technology to India, a country that has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and possesses nuclear weapons. Signing the Indo-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement this month will  increase the military tensions in South Asia. It also highlights the Japan government's callous disregard of victims of Japan's ongoing nuclear power catastrophe, Fukushima, since Japan insists on spreading nuclear  technology to other countries, while continuing to deny their own victims compensation.   

 

In India, citizens who are concerned about the dangers of nuclear power have mounted large-scale protests, which have been met with brutal repression. Compensation for land acquisition, safety measures in case of accidents and evacuation plans are woefully inadequate.

 

Sign the petition!

Standing Rock Water Protectors need your help -- Call President Obama!

Food & Water Watch has issued the following action alert: The situation in Standing Rock, North Dakota is escalating. In the last week, militarized police from five states used pepper spray, tasers, rubber bullets and sound grenades to break up peaceful Native American water protectors and their allies standing in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline. I'm hearing horror stories from people on the front lines that make me sick - the violence is unacceptable.

We can't allow a private oil and gas corporation to build a dirty pipeline through sacred indigenous lands, put key waterways at risk and keep us addicted to climate-changing fossil fuels. We must all stand against the injustices against Native peoples and their allies.

Call 877-559-7809 to tell President Obama to protect Native communities and stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

[Also see Beyond Nuclear's Human Rights website section for additional news updates and action alerts re: the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation.]