[NukeNet] NIRS Statement on Idaho reactor cancellation

[Michael Mariotte]

NEWS FROM NIRS

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912

301-270-6477; f: 301-270-4291; nirsnet at nirs.org; www.nirs.org
<http://www.nirs.org/> 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        Contact: Michael Mariotte

January 28, 2008
301-270-6477

 

NIRS STATEMENT ON CANCELLATION OF IDAHO NUCLEAR REACTOR

 

Today, MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Company announced that it is
cancelling its plans to build a new nuclear reactor in Payette County,
Idaho.

 

The company cited the poor economics of nuclear power for its decision,
saying that its "due diligence process has led to the conclusion that it
does not make economic sense to pursue the project at this time."

 

MidAmerican was planning on Warren Buffett's Berkshire/Hathaway company
to provide major financing for the project. Buffett is a major owner of
MidAmerican.

 

Which leads NIRS to the obvious conclusion: if Warren Buffett cannot
figure out how to make money from a new nuclear reactor, who can?

 

"This cancellation is the first of the new nuclear era," said Michael
Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource
Service, "but it won't be the last. Even before any new nuclear
construction has begun in the U.S., cost estimates have skyrocketed and
are now 300-400% higher than the industry was saying just two or three
years ago."

 

"The extraordinary costs of nuclear power, coupled with its irresolvable
safety and radioactive waste problems, killed the first generation of
reactors, and are going to end this second generation as well. But it
would be tragedy if the U.S. wasted any money on new reactors, when
resources are so desperately needed to implement the safer, cheaper,
faster, and sustainable energy sources needed to address the climate
crisis," Mariotte added.

 

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