As prospects for building new reactors grow dimmer, the industry is posing as a climate solution.
By and
Have you heard how
nuclear power is a low-carbon solution that could ratchet down climate change?
Even former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner is touting the industry for its
supposed reliability, low-cost, and diminutive carbon footprint.
For years, including
when she served as President Barack Obama’s climate czar, Browner shared the
widespread green view best summed up by this slogan: No nukes is good nukes.
As the saying goes,
everything has its price. But what’s driving this nuclear-powered media
shopping spree? After decades without any new
construction, a total of five new reactors are slated to open by
2018 in Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia.
Those projects were
supposed to usher in a nuclear construction boom that’s not materializing for
several reasons. One is safety. Another is the rise of fracking. A gusher of
natural gas offers another dangerous alternative to coal-fired power plants
that’s exposing the myth of nuclear energy’s so-called affordability as a
flat-out lie.
For more than three
years, the global media has tuned in with varying degrees of intensity to the
steady drumbeat of fallout (literally) from Japan’s Fukushima catastrophe.
After other ideas failed, the government over there is shifting into sci-fi
overdrive with a plan to create a mile-long underground frozen wall to contain the destroyed power plant’s
radiation.
Hey, if that
doesn’t pan out, Japan can order its scientists to genetically engineer a
Godzilla creature that guzzles radioactive seawater. The fact is that safety
concerns have made Japan go nuclear-free, at least for now, by shuttering the reactors that used to generate 30 percent of
the country’s electricity.
Some of Fukushima’s
shockwaves are hitting Americans too. In a new lawsuit they filed against TEPCO, the
company that operated the failed reactors, 71 U.S. sailors and Marines who
delivered humanitarian aid when the Fukushima crisis detonated say they
suffered radiation poisoning. They’re accusing TEPCO of jeopardizing their
health by lying about the extent of the disaster.
In addition to its
health and safety dangers, nuclear energy can trigger financial disasters. The risks are so vast
that new construction requires federal subsidies and loan guarantees. Operating
those reactors costs way more than hydro-powered or gas-fired power
plants. Even decommissioning reactors costs a fortune,
and it’s hard to see who will pay the tab for keeping those sites safe in the
long term besides taxpayers.
The projected final
cost for the two Vogtle reactors under construction in Georgia, for example,
could spiral up to $16.5 billion, according to Taxpayers for
Common Sense. If things go awry, the blow to the private companies building
them will be cushioned by $6.5 billion in federal loan guarantees.
Meanwhile, the fracking
boom — another environmental
threat — is sparking
the construction of power plants that are much cheaper and faster to build than
nuclear reactors. For instance, a crew broke ground on May 20 on an $800
million fracked-gas-fired plant in Towanda, Pennsylvania that could be
operating by 2016.
In other words, the
nuclear business stinks in the United States.
It’s gotten so bad that
French nuclear giant EDF inked a deal last year to gradually dump its U.S. nuclear operations thanks to dwindling profits and
dimming prospects that it will get to build new reactors. Among other things,
regulators decided that EDF can’t build a new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs in southern Maryland.
There are far better,
more sustainable alternatives that will keep the lights on. Among the best is wind power. Believe it or
not, wind is quickly gaining market share in Texas. According to government
projections, plummeting costs for solar panels could make sun-powered utilities more competitive than natural gas
within a single decade,
Sorry Carol Browner,
and your new friends in the nuclear industry. In terms of safety and money,
building new reactors amounts to a lose-lose proposition.
Emily Schwartz Greco is
the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit national editorial
service run by the Institute for Policy Studies @ESGreco. OtherWords columnist
William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of
Norwalk, Connecticut. OtherWords.org