America steels itself to take the nuclear plunge

摘要

When President George Bush outlined a new energy policy in his State of the Union address this year, he emphasised the need to develop hydrogen power - a keystone of the environmentalists' dream of a future powered by renewable energy. But the resulting bill looked quite different. The bulk of the money, some $15 billion, was earmarked to pay not for that green vision but to subsidise a new generation of nuclear power plants. The provisions go far beyond anything given to other energy sources (see "What's expected to be in the energy bill", p 12), and are so extreme even some long-time advocates of nuclear power oppose them. After a long debate, the US Senate scrapped the bill at the eleventh hour last week. But it is expected to be revived by Congress in September. The final version will be written by a House and Senate conference committee, whose chairman has vowed to reinsert the nuclear provisions, which include loan guarantees of up to 50 per cent for the construction of new nuclear plants, and guaranteed purchase of power from those plants at a premium price. They also extend the law that exempts US nuclear plants from liability for accidents above a fixed amount, which by some estimates could leave the taxpayer liable for up to $500 billion, in the case of a serious accident.