Friends of the Earth is fighting the Obama administration's plan to bail out the nuclear industry and build the first new reactors in the United States in 30 years. We are working nationally and within states on our Not Another Bailout campaign -- to stop the push for this dangerous and expensive technology.
Nuclear reactor construction is so expensive and subject to cost overruns and loan defaults that Wall Street won't finance it. For this reason, reactor construction in the United States came to a halt in the late 1970s. Industry executives have admitted that without taxpayer-backed loan guarantees, they cannot build new reactors. That's why the nuclear industry is so eager to stick you -- the taxpayer -- with the bill when it defaults on loans for new reactors.
Each nuclear reactor costs as much as $10 billion to build, and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the industry will default on more than half of its loans. Yet President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget includes $55 billion in nuclear loan guarantees. He recently announced the first taxpayer-backed loan guarantee to build two reactors in Georgia, the first to be built in the United States in 30 years.
Friends of the Earth's Not Another Bailout campaign is leading the fight to stop this pre-emptive bailout of the nuclear industry and keep taxpayer money from being wasted on this dirty, unsafe, and old technology. Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) credited our ad campaign for knocking an up-to-$50 billion bailout of the nuclear industry out of the 2009 stimulus bill, and we have continued to get the word out about the dangerous effects of President Obama's nuclear industry bailout in media outlets across the country. We will keep fighting against nuclear reactors and promoting safe, clean, and responsible alternatives, such as solar, wind, and energy efficiency.
| Recent Coverage of Our Campaign | |
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Erich Pica, our president, on NBC Nightly News |
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Friends of the Earth's Not Another Bailout campaign is taking charge in the Southeast U.S. in the fight to prevent new nuclear reactors from being constructed in North and South Carolina. The nuclear industry is proposing four dangerous new reactors in South Carolina alone. The tremendous construction costs are being passed onto electricity consumers, leading to massive increases in utility bills. Cleaner, less expensive alternatives are available. For more information about the Not Another Bailout campaign in the Southeast U.S., click here.
Tom Clements, Friends of the Earth's nuclear organizer on the ground in South Carolina, has assisted in Friends of the Earth's appeal to a decision to allow new nuclear reactors to be built in the state. That appeal goes to the South Carolina Supreme Court for an important and potentially precedent-setting decision. To read our press release, click here. You can also read an in-depth overview of the myriad problems associated with the two proposed South Carolina reactors.
The Not Another Bailout campaign has also opposed President Obama's first bailout award to Southern Company, a loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. To take action with us, click here.
We recently released ads in South Carolina and Georgia opposing the Obama Administration's proposed nuclear bailout. Click here to view them.
On Thursday, March 4, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard Friends of the Earth's appeal to stop a new nuclear reactor project in the state. See local news coverage here.
Perhaps the biggest problem with nuclear reactors is that they produce vast quantities of radioactive waste. No one has a safe, viable solution to the problem of disposing with this radioactive waste, which is currently piling up at reactor sites around the U.S.
The government had planned to move this radioactive waste on trains traveling through cities around the country in order to dump it at the unsafe Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. But in 2008, Friends of the Earth played a leading role in the "Don't Dump On Nevada" campaign to keep the Yucca Mountain waste storage site closed. The Federal Government abandoned the Yucca Mountain project in 2009, thanks in part to pressure from Friends of the Earth and other organizations that participated in the campaign. We won't stop our Not Another Bailout campaign while the government continues to provide risky loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors, and we will continue to push for meaningful energy solutions that do not put citizens or the environment at risk.
"Obama Administration moves forward with nuclear industry bailout," 2/13/10
"Obama speech a kick in the gut to environmentalists," 1/28/10
"Friends of the Earth to challenge South Carolina Reactors in State Supreme Court," 2/22/10
"Friends of the Earth launches TV ads Opposing Obama Administration's nuclear bailout," 2/25/10
