Award to Focus Attention on Federal Tax Dollars Being Lavished on Unproven Nuclear Reactor Technology Developed By Profitable Global Companies With No Need for Corporate Welfare.
WASHINGTON, D.C. ///NEWS ADVISORY/// The hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare now provided by U.S. taxpayers to subsidize research and development (R&D) and licensing of "small modular reactors" will be the focus of the latest "Golden Fleece Award" from Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS).
During a live, phone-based news conference at 1:30 p.m. EST on February 27, 2013, TCS will make its latest award casting the spotlight on a major rip off of U.S. taxpayers. The news event will take place a few weeks before President Obama's latest budget outline is expected to call for a continuation of SMR licensing and R&D funding at taxpayer's expense.
The federal government already paid for a version of SMR R&D when small reactors were designed for the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. Now some highly profitable companies – including Babcox & Wilcox, Westinghouse, Holtec International, and Fluor Corporation -- are at the federal trough for another round of federal support for "small modular reactors" that would go into suburban American neighborhoods. The Department of Energy (DOE) is hoping to parcel out more than 500 million dollars in subsidies in the hopes of somehow commercializing SMRs.
Even though small modular reactors are benefiting from glowingly uncritical news reporting today, the simple truth is that this is corporate welfare. Adding insult to injury U.S. taxpayers have no guarantee that the money that is wasted on SMR licensing and R&D will ever generate a single kilowatt of power. The problem is that commercial SMRs are a theoretical concept at this stage; SMRs have never been built or tested … and they come with several huge question marks, including: the lack of long-term radioactive waste storage, a likely inability to compete with cheaper fuel sources in the energy marketplace, the creation of additional targets for terrorist attacks across suburban American, the cost of added security to protect the new facilities, etc.
News event participants will be:
- Ryan Alexander, president, Taxpayers for Common Sense; and
- Autumn Hanna, senior program director, Taxpayers for Common Sense.
TO PARTICIPATE: You can join this live, phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 1:30 p.m. EST on February 27, 2013 by dialing 1 (888) 437-2685. Ask for the "TCS SMR golden fleece award" telenews event.
CAN'T PARTICIPATE?: A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.taxpayer.net as of 5 p.m. EST on February 27, 2013.
CONTACT: Ailis Wolf, (703) 276-3265 or aawolf@hastingsgroup.com.
Taxpayers for Common Sense is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan budget watchdog serving as an independent voice for American taxpayers. The mission of TCS is to achieve a government that spends taxpayer dollars responsibly and operates within its means. The organization works with individuals, policymakers, and the media to increase transparency, expose and eliminate wasteful and corrupt subsidies, earmarks, and corporate welfare, and hold decision makers accountable.
The Golden Fleece Award was created in 1975 by the late Senator William Proxmire. It is intended to highlight instances of wasteful spending. After retirement, Sen. Proxmire served as Honorary Chairman of Taxpayers for Common Sense's Advisory Board and passed the mantle of the Golden Fleece to the organization in 2000.
/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- Feb. 26, 2013/
SOURCE Taxpayers for Common Sense, Washington, D.C.
Original Publication URL: http://www.sectorpublishingintelligence.co.uk/news/273725/wastebusting+golden+fleece+award+to+go+to+small+modular+reactors
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