Biden Billion Dollar Bailout for Dying Nuke Plants

On March 22 the Associated Press reported, "Biden announces $6 Billion to revive dying nuclear plants."

The Department of Energy told the AP the scheme is intended to "bailout financially distressed owners and operators of US nuclear plants."

The US taxpayer subsidies are coming out of Biden's $1Trillion infrastructure bill, passed last November.

Over the past decade, a number of nuke plants closed prematurely because they could no longer make money. Nuclear reactors in the US were designed to operate only 40 years. Most of them started up in the 1970s and '80s, so many have now surpassed or are approaching their operating lives. As they age increasingly expensive repairs are needed to keep them creaking along.

For example, the Unit 2 reactor at the aptly named Millstone nuke plant in my old stomping grounds of southeastern Connecticut started up in 1975, making it 47 years old now.

When Hurricane Ida hit it last year, flooding occurred inside the reactor building because operators did not follow safety procedures, causing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give owners a slap on the wrist. But, typically, the agency let the reactor keep running.

Under Biden's billion dollar boondoggle scheme, the San Onofre nuclear plant in southern California, which was forced to shut down in 2012 due to gross mismanagement and corruption, could still be running at risk of causing another Fukushima.

Similarly, the also unfortunately named Diablo Canyon nuke plant, Cali's last operating nuclear plant, which is scheduled to shut down in a few years, to be replaced with renewable energy electric generation, is now threatened by Biden's insane megabucks boondoggle.


Michael Steinberg is the author of 2002's Millstone and Me: Sex, Lies and Radiation in Southeastern Connecticut.