Critics train their sights on Vogtle's future

As reported by E&E News. (Please note, all but the first sentence of this article is hidden behind a pay wall.)

$8.3 billion in federal taxpayer-back nuclear loan guarantees are at stake, if Vogtle 3 & 4's partners (including Southern Co.'s Georgia Power) default on their loan repayment. See posts in this LOAN GUARANTEE section, below, for more information on this.

$8.3 billion is 15 times more taxpayer money than was lost in the Solyndra solar loan guarantee default several years ago.

This particular article does not mention the federal loan guarantees at risk at Vogtle.

However, it does mention another potential federal taxpayer subsidy:

Even with that agreement in place, consumer advocates are worried that customers will wind up shouldering the burden of Vogtle's price tag. Westinghouse's parent, Toshiba Corp., has promised to underwrite $3.7 billion of the project, but it, too, is on shaky financial ground.

Congress could extend production tax credits, but the Senate has failed to act on a measure so far.

"There's just too much uncertainty, and I find that absolutely unacceptable," said Liz Coyle, executive director for Georgia Watch, a consumer group.

Whether it's CWIP (Construction Work in Progress, or advanced cost recovery, a.k.a. nuclear "tax" surcharges on ratepayers' electric bills), federal nuclear loan guarantees, or federal production tax credits, these all add up to massive public subsidies to filthy rich corporations like Southern Co. and GA Power.

And to these economic moral hazards of "we don't care how financially risky it is, because we're spending other people's money," must be added the radioactive moral hazards, if and when the two reactors at Vogtle 3 & 4 are completed and fired up -- reactor operating risks, as well as radioactive waste risks.