President Obama wants to triple the loan guarantee program for construction of new nuclear reactors...to the tune of $54 billion dollars. Please note! At least $8 billion dollars are not "loan guarantees" - they are a direct taxpayer loan to nuclear corporados and the money comes straight from the government's Federal Financing Bank. (Don't bother asking this financial institution for a home improvement loan - unless you plan to add a nuclear reactor to the deck.) In any case, the proposal puts taxpayers on the hook if the projects fail - and they fail about 50 percent of the time.
But let's say the new reactors come on line "some sunny day", we still have to stash the waste somewhere. Yucca Mountain? That's out. Hanford? Just try it. Appalachia? Ahhh! The cherry on the mountaintop removal cake. And the nuclear industry's cronies on Capital Hill are thinking of turning America's poorest communities into a Waste-Land for the rest of the world's used nukes. Want more? It's all there on the Heal Utah website: www.healutah.org/nuclearutah/nuclearweapons. And while you're at it, this is National Call Congress Day, so use this handy one-size-fits-all number and tell your elected representatives what you think about these plans that are percolating right under the bed as you sleep. 202-224-3121. The Congressional switchboard will hook you up.
- KBOO