The Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan budget watchdog organization based in Washington, has given its annual "Golden Fleece Award" to the Department of Energy's small nuclear reactor program, stating that the department "is in the process of wasting more than half a billion dollars" for research and development. Here are the details.
* The Golden Fleece Award was created by the late Sen. William Proxmire in 1975 to highlight instances of wasteful government spending, the Taxpayers for Common Sense stated. The organization took over the award in 2000.
* The Taxpayers for Common Sense announced that the DOE was the winner of the award this year for paying a large amount of money to large, profitable companies for what should be their own expenses for research and development and licensing related to small modular reactors.
* According to Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, while the nation faces massive budget cuts, "we are hearing the Department of Energy and the nuclear industry evangelizing about the benefit of small modular reactors. In reality, we cannot afford to pile more market-distorting subsidies to profitable companies on top of the billions of dollars we already gave away."
* The organization said that it is hard to see the large-scale viability of a small modular reactor because there is no assurance that the electricity generated will be competitive with power from other sources.
* A small modular reactor would have to produce electricity at half the projected cost of conventional reactors to compete, the group stated, and "there is not the slightest indication that they can do so."
* The Taxpayers for Common Sense also argues that there are no reliable cost estimates for small modular reactors or that the reactors would pass regulatory muster.
* In addition, the group stated, small nuclear reactors come with questions of long-term radioactive waste storage, additional targets for terrorist attacks and added security to protect the new facilities.
* In March, the Department of Energy made $450 million available for engineering, design certification and licensing for up to two small modular reactors in order to advance "our competitive edge in the global clean energy race."
* Last November, the department announced that it was awarding this funding to a partnership led by Babcock & Wilcox, in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bechtel.
Written by: Susan Graybeal
Original Publication URL: http://news.yahoo.com/organization-calls-foul-does-small-reactor-program-225400648.html
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