Federal Loan Guarantees for the Nuclear Industry

I’ve asked the question before: can you be an environmentally-responsible investor – or even just an environmentally responsible person – and accept nuclear power as part of the world’s energy mix? Evidently the Obama administration believes you can.

The federal Energy Department is expected to award a series of loan guarantees and licenses to four nuclear power companies in an effort by the government to jump start the nuclear power industry in the U.S. If all proceeds according to schedule, the companies would start building reactors sometime in 2011 and have them ready to come on line in 2015 and 2016.

What’s the issue for socially responsible investors? Historically they have opposed nuclear power because of safety and environmental concerns. The near-melt down of the reactor core at the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the problem of disposing of radioactive waste, made nuclear power plants unacceptable. Clean energy sources such as wind, hydro and solar were better alternatives.

But we’ve reached a point in the climate crisis where nuclear energy has become a more acceptable approach – even with a strong alternative energy backer such as President Barack Obama - to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally other countries, including Japan and France, have aggressively developed their nuclear energy capacity. About 75 percent of the electricity produced in France, for example, is generated by nuclear power, compared to one-fifth in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.

We’re socially responsible investors on this site. We invest by including our personal principles with traditional research. If you are someone who believes nuclear energy is in conflict with the environment you have a solid argument. If you believe nuclear energy is needed to reduce greenhouse gases, here are the four companies first in line for federal loan guarantees: Unistar Nuclear Energy, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy; NRG Energy Inc.; Scana Corp.; and Southern Co.