Battle over nuclear power subsidies heats up

Feb 24 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Scott Learn The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

With the Obama Administration seeking $36 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, the Union of Concerned Scientists is taking aim at nuke subsidies.

The group's new report finds that government "subsidies have often exceeded the average market power price of the power produced" and says Obama's plans, laid out in the administration's latest budget proposal, would put taxpayers at risk.

Meantime, the Nuclear Power Institute, the industry's policy group, touts what it sees as strong public support for loan guarantees.

A February survey sponsored by the institute finds 79 percent of those surveyed at least "somewhat agreed" that the federal government should guarantee loans "for building solar, wind, advanced-design nuclear power plants or other energy technology that reduces greenhouse gases."

The approval level dropped a bit -- to 66 percent -- when the survey of 1,000 U.S. adults zeroed in on whether we should "definitely build more nuclear power plants in the future."

Oregon probably isn't building any new nuclear plants anytime soon -- voter approval is required for any new plant and the Northwest has a decidedly checkered history with nuclear power.

Corvallis's NuScale Power, an Oregon State University spinoff, is hoping to cash in on a global expansion of nuclear power with its own advanced design nuclear plant. But the company has struggled of late.

-- Scott Learn; follow him on Twitter