A national watchdog group Wednesday bestowed its “Golden Fleece Award” for wasted taxpayer funds to the government’s small modular reactor program that includes Savannah River Site as a potential research venue.
“SMRs will likely never be a good investment, but in the current fiscal climate taxpayers must be especially concerned with any dollars the Department of Energy doles out,” the Taxpayers for Common Sense said of the program, for which up to $500 million has been pledged.
The concept of portable nuclear reactors has been lauded as a new way to bring power to remote areas – and high-paying jobs to sites where the technology is developed and tested.
Savannah River Site was named as a possible venue for an SMR “farm,” where multiple groups could use the government’s land and nuclear expertise to develop new technology. Firms involved in the SRS effort included Gen4 Energy, Holtec International subsidiary SMR and NuScale Power LLC.
Last November, however, the department announced its inaugural award of matching funds to stimulate private SMR development to a different recipient led by Babcock & Wilcox in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bechtel International.
The department also said it would issue a follow-up solicitation for other projects, possibly re-opening options for SRS.
In criticizing the plan, the taxpayer group said nuclear vendors are notorious for underestimating costs and could end up wasting hundreds of millions of dollars.
“For a range of reasons, subsidies for SMSs equal nothing more than another handout for the nuclear industry,” the Washington-based group said.
The Golden Fleece Award was first created in 1975 by the late Sen. William Proxmire.
Written by: Rob Pavey
Original Publication URL: http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-02-27/portable-reactor-program-given-golden-fleece-award
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