Kathleen Stephenson interviews Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen’s Energy Program about the Obama administration’s plans to expand loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and their disconnection from reality.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said this week that the Obama administration will press ahead with efforts to expand loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors while investigating the failure of Japan’s power plants after an earthquake.
Public Citizen's Energy Program issued a statement this week, "U.S. policymakers should watch events in Japan closely and understand the implications to public safety of committing U.S. taxpayer resources to building new nuclear plants. We call on the federal government to do the following:
1) Immediately stop activity relating to re-licensing aging U.S. reactors;
2) Halt all activity geared toward building new reactors; and
3) End federal subsidies -- such as loan guarantees -- for commercial nuclear power, which total $500 billion to date."