Editorial: Subsidy that should have been stopped

Thursday, June 12, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

On Tuesday the Senate voted 50-48, as part of an amendment to an energy bill, to keep intact federal loan guarantees that are intended to spur the construction of new nuclear power plants. The nuclear power industry demonstrated its clout in Washington once again, but at least this time it didn't register the kind of resounding victory it is accustomed to achieving. Even some of the industry's supporters in the Senate couldn't stomach the construction loan guarantees, believing that they weren't warranted.

Nevada's two senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, voted against the subsidy. Ensign noted that Congress already subsidizes nuclear power by its approval of a plan to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, a facility that Nevada's congressional delegation opposes. No state has been willing to accept the industry's radioactive garbage, so Congress is seeking to force only one state -- Nevada, which doesn't produce any nuclear power -- to accept 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. Reid said that the nuclear power industry has had more than three decades to convince Wall Street of its merits: "The truth is Wall Street is not convinced, and until Wall Street is convinced, Congress should stay out of risky financial deals." Democrats contend the government would be liable for $14 billion if the plants default o n their bonds.

The bottom line is that if it wasn't for the federal government's generosity, the nuclear power industry would have succumbed a long time ago. It makes no sense -- economically or environmentally -- to give the nuclear power industry another subsidy.