Comments on a Plan for Obtaining Private Financing for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor

In response to a congressional request, GAO presented a followup report of the progress of Department of Energy (DOE) plans to obtain private financing for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR). In an earlier review, GAO had found that plans issued by DOE and the CRBR financing company in March 1983: (1) represented the beginning of a process that would require much more work and a tradeoff between short-term budgetary savings and possible higher overall Government costs for the project; and (2) did not provide sufficient information to adequately analyze the tax benefits of private financing.