Environmental Advocates Issues and Reports

(Albany, NY) - Today, the Bush-Cheney administration plans to release its energy strategy. The repercussions of the plan, which pushes for greater reliance on nuclear power, will be far reaching - ultimately affecting New York State, which has already taken steps to enable a nuclear power revival.

Vice President Cheney's cabinet-level Energy Policy Development Group is studying how to revive the waning nuclear industry. The plan includes recommendations for streamlining the regulatory process for building new reactors, extending the life of existing ones, and proposing renewal of a law that limits liability on industry for nuclear accidents. The plan falsely argues that nuclear power is an "emissions-free" technology that can be deployed to combat global warming and air pollution.

"The Bush-Cheney administration's promotion of nuclear energy is distressingly short-sighted and potentially dangerous," said Kyle Rabin, Nuclear Energy Policy Project Director for the Albany-based Environmental Advocates. "Under the plan, New Yorkers will be threatened by unsafe reactor operation and greater amounts of radioactive waste and pollution. Nuclear power must be phased out in New York State and elsewhere in the nation. The environmental community will fight any attempts to build new nukes and to breathe new life into existing plants."

"Nuclear power can neither address our short-term energy problems, nor can it effectively combat global climate change," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service. "We need to implement cost-effective energy efficiency solutions and to invest in the technologies of the 21st century. The Bush-Cheney administration would return us to the 1960's and 70's and the time of behemoth nuclear power and coal plants. Those policies failed then, and they will fail now. We can do better."

CHENEY'S CONNECTIONS TO THE INDUSTRY: As it turns out, Cheney's energy task force has built-in ties to the nuclear industry. A key member of the task force, Energy Department official Joe Kelliher, was a longtime nuclear power lobbyist. Another connection: Roy Coffee, who worked as Governor Bush's lobbyist in Washington, was recently hired by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's front group. Nuclear executives have enjoyed extraordinary access to the energy task force, meeting repeatedly with top Bush officials, including economic adviser Larry Lindsey and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
LIABILITY: Vice President Cheney has stated that the Bush administration would seek renewed legislation exempting nuclear companies from unlimited liability for accidents. The view of nuclear utilities on the safety of their industry is best illustrated by the existence of the Price-Anderson Act. No utility would build or operate a reactor if it were not shielded from the potential liability of a nuclear accident (upwards of $300 Billion in property damage and thousands of deaths and illnesses). No other hazardous industry enjoys such liability protection-an indication of just how dangerous nuclear power is. A mature industry with a good safety record would not need the Price-Anderson Act. In response to a Reuter's reporter who asked whether Bush would seek a renewal of the Price-Anderson Act, Cheney said if it is not renewed, "nobody's going to invest in nuclear power plants."
NEW REACTORS: No commercial nuclear power plants have been built in the United States in 25 years. It is only now, under the guise of an "energy crisis," that the nuclear industry has seriously explored building new plants. More than two decades after the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident, a consortium of five utility companies are working to re-energize the nuclear power industry. Construction of as many as five new plants is planned for undisclosed sites in the United States. Applications are expected at the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the near future. Two of the companies, Constellation and Entergy, are buying up reactors in New York State.
SAME OLD INDUSTRY RHETORIC: The nuclear industry's rhetoric is familiar: "inherently safe," "too cheap to meter," and "no environmental impact." Nothing could be further from the truth. Even without factoring in unknown future costs for radioactive waste management, health impacts, and reactor accidents, some forms of renewable energy, conservation, and efficiency are usually cheaper and always safer and cleaner. Furthermore, new reactor construction does not help us with our current energy woes. Even with a site approved tomorrow, and zero public opposition, the physical act of getting a new reactor on line could take up to a decade.
NO SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING: In recent speeches, Cheney has promoted nuclear power as a solution to global warming and air pollution. Cheney's claim does not stand up under scrutiny. According to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, for nuclear power to make a substantial reduction in the main global warming gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), commercial reactors would not only have to supply much of the world's electricity growth but also replace many coal-fired plants as they are retired. This would require the construction of approximately 2,000 nuclear power plants (1,000 megawatts each) around the world over the next several decades. The total cost penalty of using nuclear would amount to several trillion dollars. The truth is that CO2 is emitted at each step of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining, milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication, construction of the reactor, transportation and storage of radioactive waste, and decommissioning of old reactors. Each of these stages is also a source of radioactive pollution and long-lasting, highly toxic waste. When the entire nuclear fuel chain is taken into account, carbon emissions from nuclear power are significant - at least 4-5 times above emissions from any renewable technology. Effectively addressing climate change requires wise use of our resources. With its resource and capital-intensive nature, nuclear power is a drain on efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Energy efficiency and renewables (and developing technologies like solar, wind, fuel cells, and microturbines) are far more effective-dollar for dollar-at reducing greenhouse emissions than is nuclear power.
RADIOACTIVE WASTE: If nuclear power use expands, a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain could end up with five to 10 times the amount of radioactive waste that has been set by law. Yucca Mountain, the lone site chosen to contain commercial reactor and defense wastes, is under study to determine whether it can contain up to 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. Relicensing reactors and extending their operation will result in more waste. Five operating reactors have received 20-year license extensions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. License renewals for another five reactors are pending. Another 32 reactors are expected to apply for license renewal by 2005. If all of those extensions were granted, about 120,000 tons of waste would have to be buried over the next 40 years just from existing reactors. (This figure includes the 40,000 tons that have already been produced.) According to the Department of Energy, if more reactors are built to meet growing energy demands, the waste volume could increase to between 500,000 tons and 700,000 tons. As it is, Yucca Mountain is years behind schedule, and current cost estimates place the program above $50 Billion, if it's ever completed.
NEW YORK STATE'S NUCLEAR ENERGY POLICY: By promoting the sale of nuclear power plants, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) is playing into the revival of New York's nuclear power industry and may be paving the way for plant license renewal and a next generation of nuclear power plants. The PSC is currently reviewing the sale of the two Nine Mile Point reactor units and the Indian Point 2 reactor to cash-strapped, limited liability subsidiaries. The PSC is also considering lightened regulation for the Indian Point 3 and Fitzpatrick reactors. "The Pataki administration's policy on nuclear power plant sales is reinvigorating the state's nuclear industry," said Rabin. Like the Bush administration, the Pataki regime appears to have some connections to nuclear power companies. Entergy, which is buying three of New York's six reactors, has strong connections to the Pataki Administration. Plunkett and Jaffe - Gov. Pataki's former law firm - has been hired by Entergy. This firm is assisting Entergy in getting legislation passed that would allow a multiyear tax deal on the Indian Point and Fitzpatrick nuclear plants, purchased from the state New York Power Authority. Entergy has also secured the law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene, and MacRae which employs Paul Gioia, commissioner of the NYS Public Service Commissioner from April 1, 1981 through January 29, 1987.