FYI, here's the transcript of yesterday's CBC radio program on future US nukes...
Jaro
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The World at Six
[- You thought nuclear power was on its way out in the United States?
- RICHARD MYERS (HEAD OF POLICY, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE): I think they thought that they had killed]
CBC Radio Thursday, June 26, 2003
CHRIS PURDY (CO-HOST):
- You thought nuclear power was on its way out in the united States? -
RICHARD MYERS (HEAD OF POLICY, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE):
I think they thought that they had killed us off 10 or 15 years ago, but, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "We'll be back." We are back. We never left.
CHRIS PURDY (CO-HOST):
To the United States now, where the much maligned nuclear power industry is on the verge of a comeback. Once seen as the clean and efficient alternative to fossil fuels, the nuclear industry fell victim to widely publicized accidents, growing environmental fears and huge cost overruns. But that was then. Now, with the help from the White House and U.S. Congress, nuclear advocates say the industry is being reborn. Our Washington correspondent, Frank Koller, reports.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
A quarter century ago, the words Three Mile Island struck fear across North America. That 1979 accident at a reactor in Pennsylvania dealt a virtual deathblow to a then quite healthy U.S. nuclear power industry. No one died, but the accident fuelled growing nervousness about the environmental risks and skyrocketing costs of nuclear-generated electricity. The industry gradually ground to a halt. The last time a new reactor was turned on, in the U.S., was a full ten years ago. But now, the future is looking brighter.
RICHARD MYERS (HEAD OF POLICY, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE):
We're sure very, very optimistic.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
That's Richard Myers, head of policy for the industry's Washington lobbying arm, the Nuclear Energy Institute.
RICHARD MYERS (HEAD OF POLICY, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE):
Our intent, here, is not just to build a couple of new plants. My own personal view is that if we build three or four, and that is the most significant hurdle, getting those first three or four built, we'll build another hundred.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
That would just about double the number of reactors now in operation. The industry's optimism is based in part on rising natural gas and oil prices, which, not surprisingly, are generating interests in other sources and energy. But the main reason is the aggressive support for nuclear power by President Bush and the Republican controlled U.S. Congress. Spencer Abraham is Bush's Energy Secretary.
SPENCER ABRAHAM (U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY):
Our goal is simple, we want to design reactors of the future that will be meltdown-proof, proliferation resistant, far more efficient reactors, which can substitute for the existing reactors when they age, to continue to make sure that nuclear energy is an important part of our clean energy mix.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
Nuclear reactors currently generate 20 percent of the U.S.'s electricity. A figure unchanged for decades. Throughout the Bush administration, there's a conviction the industry's bad reputation is unwarranted. Nuclear technology is now much safer, it's argued. Earlier this month, even Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, called for a new look at the nuclear option to solve the U.S.'s energy problems.
ALAN GREENSPAN (CHAIRMAN OF THE U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE):
We're spending very little time, relative to the size of the problem, in raising the question as to whether we should be doing more nuclear. You may, at the end of the day, decide that it's not advisable. But at least, look at it. Rather than dismiss it out of hand.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
The U.S. Senate has heard the call. The same day Greenspan spoke, Senators approved up to 30 billion dollars in government loan guarantees, for private companies set to build six new reactors. And the Senate also limited the financial liability those companies could face in case of nuclear accidents. Financial help from government could be essential, because while many Americans worry about nuclear reactors for environmental and safety reasons, Wall Street worries about money. And Peter Rigby says Wall Street sees investing in nuclear power as a bad bet. Rigby authored a recent damning report on the nuclear industry's future for Standard and Poor's.
PETER RIGBY (AUTHOR, REPORT ON NUCLEAR INDUSTRY'S FUTURE):
The industry has new and advanced energy technologies that usually take longer, cost more and usually have start-up problems. Those just aren't the kind of risks that we see right now with conventional fossil fuel power plants or even hydroelectric. And then there's always the risk that once the construction is done, anti-nuclear activists can be very effective in delaying even a start-up.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
But that's exactly why the industry needs federal support, argues nuclear lobbyist Richard Myers. Myers believe private nuclear industry should be protected by the U.S. government, from the U.S. government. Because the industry has no control over the government's supposedly independent licensing procedures.
RICHARD MYERS (HEAD OF POLICY, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE):
The only reason the project would fail would be because the federal government's own licensing and regulatory system did not perform as promised. It seems to us entirely appropriate that the private sector should receive some measure of protection against licensing procedures and regulatory agencies over which they have no control.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
The nuclear industry clearly had no control over a recent report by the independent Congressional Budget Office. As if in defiance of the White House, it declared the risk of loan defaults in the nuclear industry are, in its words, "very high." That said, the U.S. environmental movement admits the industry's prospects are improving. Debra Bulger, a senior lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Washington, says the U.S. must resist every attempt to rejuvenate the nuclear industry.
DEBRA BULGER (LOBBYIST):
We don't see any future for the nuclear industry in United States. We think the nuclear industry is a dead industry. They continue to receive outrageous subsidies that no other industry gets and there are much better options that we, as a society, should be pursuing, instead of the most expensive way ever devised to boil water.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
Expensive or not, nuclear power advocates are optimistic they will soon be boiling more water to generate electricity. Last year, they won approval to use a mountain in Nevada to store nuclear waste. Now, government loan guarantee seem almost a sure thing. Not surprisingly, lobbyist Richard Myers is feeling pretty good.
RICHARD MYERS (HEAD OF POLICY, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE):
I think they thought that they had killed us off 10 or 15 years ago, but, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "We'll be back." We are back. We never left.
FRANK KOLLER (REPORTER):
Frank Koller, CBC News, Washington.