Nuclear Subsidies
Channel: Kathy Reed
Date: 2014-02-17

Our Mix panelists, Alex Flint of the nuclear industry lobby group Nuclear Energy Institute and Christopher Paine of the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, headed to the energyNOW! Green Room to debate whether the nuclear industry should continue to receive federal subsidies.

Flint says of the subsidies for traditional electricity sources over the past 50 years, most have gone to oil, gas and coal, while nuclear has received only about 9 percent. He says they all sell into the same marketplace, though, so the cost of production is important. Any fair conversation about subsidies, he says has to be in the context of what all technologies are receiving.

Paine responds that the nuclear industry has received more federal support, both direct and indirect, than any other energy technology, a total of $70 billion to $100 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service. He says that doesn't include some indirect subsidies, such as enriched uranium cores that the government gives to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Another form of government support is the free training that the Navy gives to its recruits who can later use that knowledge to work in the nuclear industry. The NRDC would like to see the federal government devote more money to things like developing innovative technologies or improving safety. Meanwhile, it's time to move major federal support to technologies like wind and solar that have a much smaller share of the market and need the help. At some point, Paine says, all subsidies should end.

Flint says his main concern is how to meet the electricity demands of a world whose population will grow by more than 30 percent in the next 40 years, when 1.5 billion people today have no electricity at all. He says coal, gas nuclear and renewables will all be in that mix. He believes the idea of subsidies deserves a look from a global perspective, so it can focus on how demands are met going forward. Flint says the traditional environmental community and the nuclear ...