Stop loan for nuclear reactor

ACTION ALERT:

6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912; 301-270-6477; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org

URGENT!

DOE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING $7.5 BILLION LOAN TO ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE FOR CALVERT CLIFFS-3!

HELP US PUSH BACK NOW!

October 29, 2010

Dear Friends,

It's election season. It's almost Halloween. The John Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally is tomorrow (hope to see some of you there!). In short, for most of us there's a lot going on and not enough time to do it all. But if you haven't yet sent a letter to DOE and Congress, and called your Members, please take one moment to act now.

Because, incredibly, the U.S. Department of Energy is seriously considering giving a $7.5 Billion loan to the French government-owned company Electricite de France (EDF) to try to rescue the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor. As you know, this project took a major hit recently when EDF’s U.S. partner, Constellation Energy, backed out of the project because Constellation realized it made no economic sense.

But EDF and the French government apparently aren't worried about the economics—they just want to build a new reactor in the U.S. no matter what the cost.

And the real costs: routine radiation releases, radioactive waste generation, increased electricity rates, and the constant threat of nuclear meltdown and terror attack, the risk of losing the entire $7.5 Billion loan, all of these would be borne by U.S. ratepayers and taxpayers.

We ask each of you to do everything you can to push back against this absurd idea as hard as possible as fast as possible.

Please send a letter to DOE and your Congressmembers here, and then please forward the link to the Action page to all of your organizational e-mail lists. Tell your friends, dormmates, and office colleagues too! And please also take a moment to call your Congressmembers (their direct phone numbers will show up when you send your e-mail). The link to the Action page is here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4558 You can also copy and paste this link on your Facebook page (add this headline: Urgent: Stop $7.5B Loan to French Govt for New Nuke in U.S.). Thanks to everyone who has taken action already, but we hope many more of you will take the opportunity now.

EDF, of course, legally cannot actually own or operate a U.S. nuclear reactor, it would still need a U.S. partner. And NIRS is already litigating this issue in NRC licensing hearings--and we'll keep doing so until we win! So why should U.S. taxpayers promise $7.5 Billion to a company that cannot actually use it? Perhaps more importantly, EDF is 85% owned by the French government. Why should U.S. taxpayers lend money to the French government? Let them waste their own money! Don’t we have a few pressing needs to take care of here in the U.S.? The whole idea is simply outrageous!

So please raise your voice to DOE and Congress here.

And, please, help us spread the word as far as we can and push back as hard as we can. We’re going to do everything we can to reach as many people as we can, but we need your help too.

Note: if you don’t live in the U.S.—wish us luck! A victory here would be a major blow to EDF and the Areva EPR reactor worldwide!

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org