I support Nuclear Power - Democratic Underground

underpants

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Mon Sep-28-09 07:04 PM
Original message

I support Nuclear Power

Edited on Mon Sep-28-09 07:06 PM by underpants

as long as I don't have to pay for it

Oh-no! did I just introduce finance into an issue where it is almost completely ignored (read: healthcare)

Economics of new nuclear power plants
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_new_nuclear_power_plants
Analysis of the economics of nuclear power must take into account who bears the risks of future uncertainties. To date all operating nuclear power plants were developed by state-owned or regulated utility monopolies where many of the risks associated with construction costs, operating performance, fuel price, and other factors were borne by consumers rather than suppliers. Many countries have now liberalized the electricity market where these risks, and the risk of cheaper competitors, are borne by plant suppliers and operators rather than consumers, which leads to a significantly different evaluation of the economics of new nuclear power plants.<1>

Insurance???

Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price-Anderson_Nuclear_Industries_Indemnity_Act

The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act (commonly called the Price-Anderson Act) is a United States federal law, first passed in 1957 and since renewed several times, which governs liability-related issues for all non-military nuclear facilities constructed in the United States before 2026. The main purpose of the Act is to partially indemnify the nuclear industry against liability claims arising from nuclear incidents while still ensuring compensation coverage for the general public. The Act establishes a no fault insurance-type system in which the first $10 billion is industry-funded as described in the Act (any claims above the $10 billion would be covered by the federal government). At the time of the Act's passing, it was considered necessary as an incentive for the private production of nuclear power — this was because investors were unwilling to accept the then-unquantified risks of nuclear energy without some limitation on their liability.

http://www.globalsubsidies.org/en/subsidy-watch/commentary/gambling-nuclear-power-how-public-money-fuels-industry
SW: Can you give us a sense of the scale of public subsidies to nuclear power in the United States?

DK: All operating nuclear power plants in the U.S. were built with substantial public subsidies. These included large subsidies to research and development, plant construction, uranium enrichment, and waste management. Since its inception, the industry has also benefitted from government programs to shift key risks of the nuclear fuel cycle away from investors and onto taxpayers.

A handful of studies have quantified subsidies to the nuclear-power industry over the decades, indicating aggregate subsidization at well over US$ 150 billion, and a subsidy intensity (government support per kWh output) normally exceeding 30% of the market value of the energy produced.

These subsidies have enabled our existing commercial reactors to remain viable power providers, but only with additional capital write-offs. These write-offs have occurred not only through bankruptcies, but in the form of compensation for "stranded costs" as well. Basically, a cost was considered stranded if it made a plant uncompetitive at the time the electricity industry was being deregulated. Nuclear generation accounted for large share of total stranded costs in the United States, with nearly US$ 100 billion (2007$) of nuclear-related infrastructure deemed uncompetitive transferred as a liability to be bailed out by ratepayers. Although the industry frequently points to its low operating costs as evidence of its market competitiveness, this economic structure is an artifact of large subsidies to capital, historical write-offs of capital, and ongoing subsidies to operating costs.