...Nor would any new reactors be built in the U.S. today, according to a comprehensive new report written by Doug Koplow of Earth Track for the Union of Concerned Scientists: "Nuclear Power: Still Not Viable Without Subsidies." Ironically, the report's major public unveiling took place on Capitol Hill on March 11 -- the very day the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe began. Since then, one of the lead new reactor proposals in the U.S. -- two new reactors targeted at the South Texas Project, next in line for a multi-billion dollar nuclear loan guarantee and loan backed by U.S. federal taxpayers -- has largely gone belly up: its major partners included Tokyo Electric Power Company (owner and operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant) and Hitachi (merged with General Electric, designer of the catastrophically failed Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor), as well as Toshiba (Japanese owner of Westinghouse) and the Japan federal government's Bank for International Cooperation. The U.S. partner, NRG Energy of Princeton, NJ, has announced it will put no more money into the project, given the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Koplow's report is very likely the single most comprehensive accounting yet of more than half a century of lavish taxpayer and ratepayer subsidization of the nuclear power industry in the U.S. -- often without the public's knowledge, let alone consent. Koplow has concluded that “After 50 years, the nuclear industry needs to move away from government patronage to a model based on real economic viability. The considerable operational and construction risks of this power source need to be reflected in the delivered price of power rather than dumped onto taxpayers.”